OMFORTABLE 
FAITH  T---^ 


Malcolm  J.  Mc  Leod 


^^K 


Sr^^ 


r\ 


BV  4637  .M53  1908 
McLeod,  Malcolm  James,  b. 

1867. 
A  comfortable  faith 


A  COMFORTABLE   FAITH 


Malcolm  J.  McLeod,  P.P. 
A  Comfortable  Faith 

Cloth,  net  ^1.00. 

Under  Mr.  McLeod's  gifted  hand  the  most 
commonplace  religious  truth  glitters  with  new 
fire.  Few  men  have  equalled  his  gift  of  ex- 
pression and  illustration.  He  argues  by  pic- 
ture and  convinces  with  his  array  of  facts.  In 
this  volume  the  central  theme  is  the  Christian 
assurance  of  heart  in  the  midst  of  life  and 
why  he  has  it  and  the  kind  of  Christian  a  man 
ought  to  be  with  this  gospel  to  believe  in. 

The  Culture  of  Simplicity 

3d  Edition.  Cloth,  net,  ;^1.00. 
"The  first  suspicion  of  imitation  is  quickly 
dispelled."  The  book  stands  on  its  own  merits. 
More  vivacious,  more  practical  for  the  Ameri- 
can reader  than  Charles  Wagner's  'The  Sim- 
ple Life.'  It  explains  more  clearly  how  the  life 
may  be  lived,  and  reaches  the  root  of  things 
in  the  Gospel  of  Christ." — Congregationalist. 

Earthly   Discords   and 
How  to  Heal  Them 

3d  Edition.  Cloth,  net,  75c. 
"This  book  is  written  in  a  clever,  fascinating 
style,  and  is  a  masterpiece  in  every  way.  The 
book  is  rich  in  pithy  quotations,  apt  and  strik- 
ing literary  references,  and  convincing  bio- 
graphical illustrations,  and  deserves  to  be 
widely  circulated  and  frequently  perused." — 
Canadian  Churchman. 

Heavenly  Harmonies 
for  Earthly  Living 

6th  Ediiion.  Cloth,  net,  50c. 
"Mr.  McLeod  is  admirable  in  his  selection  of 
comparisons,  prolific  in  presentation  of  inter- 
esting,  telling  points,  modern  and  intelligent 
in  his  combining  of  today's  scientific  knowl- 
edge with  the  eternal  truth  on  which  all  sound 
preaching  is  based."— /rt^w  Editorialin  New 
York  Afnerican. 


A  Comfortable  Faith 


By 


Malcolm  James  McLeod 


New  York        Chicago        Toronto 

Fleming    H.   Revell    Company 

London         and         Edinburgh 


Copyright,  1908,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


SECOND  EDITIOIT 


New  York  :  1 58  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago :  80  Wabash  Avenue 
Toronto  :  25  Richmond  St.,  W. 
London  :  2 1  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:    100  Princes  Street 


CONTENTS 


I.  The  God  of  All  Comfort    . 

II.  The  Gospel  of  Comfort 

III.  The  Comfort  of  a  Lively  Hope 

IV.  Good  Health  and  Comfort 
V.  A  Comfortable  Equipment  . 

VI.  Comfort  and  Enthusiasm    . 

VII.  Comfort  by  Beholding 

VIII.  Comfort  and  the  Christian  Ideal     159 

IX.  The  Comfort  of  Final  Victory  .     179 


PAGE 

43 
61 

81 

lOI 

119 

141 


THE  GOD  OF  ALL  COMFORT 


A   COMFORTABLE    FAITH 

THE  GOD  OF  ALL   COMFORT 

"  Comfort  ye,  Comfort  ye  My  people,  saith  your  God." 
— Isaiah  40 :  i. 

THIS  is  one  of  the  really  great  chap- 
ters o£  the  Bible.  For  sublimity  of 
thought,  for  richness  of  imagina- 
tion, it  is  conceded  to  be  one  of  the  first  things 
in  Old  Testament  literature.  Possibly  no 
other  single  chapter  has  exerted  so  wide  and 
weighty  an  influence  on  the  world's  leaders^ 
Handel  begins  his  Messiah  with  it,  "  Comfort 
ye.  Comfort  ye  My  people."  Luther  pored 
over  it  in  the  fortress  of  Salzburg;  John 
Brown  read  it  in  the  prison  at  Harper's  Ferry  ; 
Oliver  Cromwell  went  to  it  for  strength  in 
time  of  storm;  Daniel  Webster  read  it  again 
and  again  when  he  was  crushed  and  broken 
in  spirit;  Wordsworth  and  Carlyle  both  refer 
to  its  influence  on  their  style;  while  Tennyson 
confessed  it  to  be  one  of  the  five  great  classics 
in  the  Old  Testament  record.  Surely  such  a 
chapter,  and  with  such  a  list  of  tributes,  is  en- 
titled to  our  most  earnest  study. 
13 


14  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

Some  years  ago  an  English  magazine  wrote 
to  the  most  eminent  scholars  in  the  Empire, 
asking  what  lines  in  prose  or  poetry  seemed 
to  them  most  immortal.  Their  answers  were 
interesting.  Tennyson  quoted  from  "  Ham- 
let"; Matthew  Arnold  from  Homer;  George 
Meredith  chose  a  passage  from  Virgil;  Swin- 
burne selected  the  ''  Agamemnon  "  of  ^schy- 
lus.  Lord  Derby  said  his  favourite  was  the 
"  Phaedo  "  of  Plato.  Andrew  Lang  selected 
the  twenty- fourth  book  of  the  Iliad  where 
Priam  seeks  the  dead  body  of  Hector.  John 
Addington  Symonds  said  the  greatest  passage 
known  to  him  in  literature  was  the  drama  of 
Job;  while  Mr.  Gladstone,  grand  old  man, 
said,  "  Give  me  the  fortieth  chapter  of  Isaiah." 

As  we  read  and  study  Isaiah  we  come  to 
realise  what  a  remarkable  man  he  was.  To 
begin  with  he  was  a  statesman,  a  man  of  great 
political  foresight.  For  true  and  sterling  pa- 
triotism he  has  had  few  equals.  Perhaps 
there  never  has  been  a  nation  more  patriotic 
than  the  Hebrew  nation.  There  was  only  one 
city  in  all  the  world  to  the  Jew,  and  that  was 
dear  Jerusalem.  "  If  I  forget  thee,  O  Jeru- 
salem, let  my  right  hand  forget  its  cunning." 
Isaiah  was  passionately  patriotic.  Patriotism 
was  a  fire  in  him.  More  than  Athens  to  De- 
mosthenes, more  than  Geneva  to  Calvin,  more 


THE  GOD  OP  ALL  COMFORT       15 

than  Florence  to  Savonarola  was  Jerusalem  to 
Isaiah.  He  has  painted  for  us  her  fashions,  her 
customs,  her  situation,  her  gates,  her  prom- 
inent men  and  women,  her  sufferings,  her 
wars,  her  final  ruin, — and  all  with  an  insight 
that  is  keen  and  accurate.  And  he  was  an 
orator.  He  is  one  of  the  few  great  kings  of 
speech,  magnificently  gifted  and  with  every 
gift  consecrated.  Great  is  the  sage,  great  the 
statesman,  great  the  poet,  but  greater  far  the 
prophet. 

"  He  needs  no  converse  nor  companionship, 
In  cold  starlight,  whence  thou  canst  not  come. 
The  undelivered  tidings  in  his  breast, 
Will  not  let  him  rest. 

He  looks  down  upon  the  immemorable  throng, 
And  binds  the  ages  with  a  song. 
And  through  the  accents  of  our  time, 
There  throbs  the  message  of  eternity." 

And  he  was  par  excellence  a  preacher. 
Verily  here  was  a  man  called  of  God.  That 
call  had  not  been  a  conventional  one,  either. 
There  had  been  no  '*  Woe  is  me  if  I  preach 
not  the  Gospel.''  There  had  been  no  lightning 
flash,  no  articulate  utterance  summoning  him 
to  the  work.  He  had  had  a  deep  religious  ex- 
perience. He  had  been  forgiven,  anointed, 
baptised,  then  left  to  himself.  He  had  heard 
of  the  need.  He  had  heard  the  Lord's  voice 
calling,  "  Who  will  go  ?  "      And  he  had  an- 


16  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

swered,  "  Here  am  I,  Lord,  send  me;  I  will  go." 
It  was  a  simple,  willing  surrender  of  a  man 
set  apart,  and  on  the  watch  for  opportunities. 
One  almost  feels,  after  reading  Isaiah's  his- 
tory, that  the  call  to  the  ministry  has  full 
oft  been  made  too  mandatory  and  alarming. 
Here,  for  instance,  is  a  passage  quoted  verbatim 
from  Dr.  Campbell  Morgan :  "  A  young  man 
comes  to  me  and  says,  I  am  not  at  all  sure, 
but  I  have  a  sort  of  idea  that  I  ought  to  enter 
the  Christian  ministry.  What  shall  I  say  to 
him?  I  say,  for  God's  sake  and  the  sake  of 
humanity  keep  out.  No  man  that  thinks,  but 
is  not  sure,  should  ever  enter  the  Christian 
ministry."  That  principle  would  have  closed 
the  door  on  Isaiah.  It  would  have  closed  the 
door  on  Henry  Drummond,  who  tells  us  that 
he  never  felt  any  direct  call  to  the  work. 
(Drummond,  be  it  remembered,  was  a  licentiate 
of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland.)  The  voice 
that  calls  a  young  man  to  the  sacred  desk  is 
not  always  a  woeful  voice.  Sometimes  it  is; 
sometimes  it  is  not.  Oftentimes  it  is  a  wooing 
voice.  We,  not  God,  must  make  the  decision. 
There  is  no  tidal  compulsion.  It  is  a  willing, 
devoted  offering.  Here,  for  instance,  is  that 
great  gifted  apostle  Robert  Bruce,  whom  Alex- 
ander Whyte  calls  the  most  finished  divine 
that  Scotland  has  produced.     His  father  and 


THE  GOD  OF  ALL  COMFORT      17 

mother  had  educated  him  for  the  bar,  but 
against  the  wish  of  both  parents  the  Lord  had 
set  him  apart  for  the  Edinburgh  pulpit. 
Listen  to  what  he  says,  *'  I  would  rather  walk 
through  half  a  mile  of  burning  brimstone 
every  night  than  spend  over  again  those  dread 
midnight  hours  when  I  fought  against  the 
call  of  God."  But  here,  on  the  other  hand, 
is  our  own  beloved  American,  Phillips  Brooks, 
who  went  very  tremblingly  to  his  first  charge, 
who  was  not  at  all  sure  that  he  was  in  the 
holy  calling  for  a  life-work,  but  who  said, 
"If  lives  are  changed,  I  shall  take  that  as  the 
best  evidence  that  God  wants  me.'* 

But  let  us  to  the  chapter.  I  have  read  this 
chapter  a  great  many  times.  I  have  read  it  in 
English  and  I  have  tried  to  struggle  through 
it  in  Hebrew.  I  have  tried  to  saturate  myself 
with  its  beauty,  and  I  find  there  are  three  word- 
threads  on  which  the  prophet  strings,  or  shall 
we  say,  rings  his  eloquence.  These  three  words 
being : 

The  Greatness  of  God; 

The  Glory  of  God; 

The  Gentleness  of  God. 
Let  us  think  of  these  words  in  the  light  of 
the  passage  before  us. 

I.  The  Greatness  of  God. 

Some  books  have  no  breadth  about  them.    It 


18  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

is  hard  to  breathe  freely  while  you  are  read- 
ing them.  They  are  smothering,  so  to  speak. 
One  feels  the  need  of  air  and  better  ventila- 
tion. Not  so  Isaiah.  There  is  nothing 
cramped  about  the  great  poet-prophet;  there 
is  nothing  of  the  cell  or  the  cloister.  He  car- 
ries with  him  rather  the  breeze  of  the  infinite. 
A  prophet  is  a  man  with  the  odour  of  the  in- 
finite on  his  garments.  This  chapter  is  bathed 
in  the  infinite.  "  Lift  up  your  eyes  on  high, 
and  see  who  hath  created  these,  that  bringeth 
out  their  host  by  number;  He  calleth  them  all 
by  name;  by  the  greatness  of  His  might,  and 
for  that  He  is  strong  in  power,  not  one  is 
lacking." 

The  best  way  to  rescue  life  from  littleness 
is  to  associate  oneself  with  something  large. 
No  man  gets  the  most  out  of  life  till  the  sky 
steals  into  his  blood,  till  the  sea  surges  through 
his  veins.  Great  fish  do  not  swim  about  in 
ponds.  I  found  last  summer  that  the  trout 
caught  up  in  my  little  island  home  are  about 
in  proportion  to  the  dimensions  of  the  stream. 
"  Give  me  a  great  thought,"  was  the  dying 
cry  of  Schiller.  Nature  is  a  cabinet  of  great 
thoughts.  Great  thoughts  make  great  men. 
*' Lift  up  your  eyes  on  high  and  behold;" 
there  they  are — God's  thoughts. 

You  look  up  into  the  sky  and  you  see  only 


THE  GOD  OF  ALL  COMFORT       19 

six  thousand  stars,  or  so,  with  the  naked  eye. 
Isaiah  never  saw  more  than  that,  yet  they 
startled  him;  but  to-day,  with  the  aid  of  the 
telescope  and  the  sensitised  plate  we  can  count 
millions.  Lord  Kelvin  reckoned  that  the 
system  around  us  numbers  not  less  than  a 
thousand  million  worlds.  Think  of  it!  A 
thousand  million!  Nothing  cramped  about 
that  surely!  This  little  earth  on  which  we 
live  is  pretty  big,  we  sometimes  boast;  the 
planet  Jupiter,  out  yonder,  is  eleven  times 
bigger.  A  step  farther  and  the  sun  is  ten 
times  bigger  than  Jupiter.  A  step  farther  still, 
and  there  is  Sirius,  a  thousand  times  bigger 
than  the  sun  and  a  million  times  as  far  away. 
But  these  numbers  mean  nothing  to  us.  We 
are  bewildered.  We  are  simply  lost  in  a 
retinue  of  figures.  If  you  touch  a  hot  iron 
with  your  hand  you  feel  it  instantly,  so  fast 
does  feeling  travel;  but  if  you  had  an  arm 
long  enough  to  reach  the  sun,  and  it  is  pretty 
hot  (11,000  degrees  Fahrenheit),  you  would 
not  feel  it  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  years. 
We  are  lost,  I  repeat,  in  this  bewildering 
arithmetic. 

And  this  is  how  Isaiah  felt.  He  was  stag- 
gered ;  he  was  overwhelmed.  "  Lift  up  your  eyes 
on  high,  and  see  who  hath  created  these,  that 
bringeth  out  their  host  by  number;  He  calleth 


m  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

them  all  by  name;  by  the  greatness  of  His 
might,  and  for  that  He  is  strong  in  power, 
not  one  is  lacking.  Why,  sayest  thou,  O 
Jacob,  and  speakest,  O  Israel,  my  way  is  hid 
from  Jehovah,  and  the  justice  due  to  me  is 
passed  away  from  my  God?  Hast  thou  not 
known?  hast  thou  not  heard?  The  Everlast- 
ing God,  Jehovah,  the  Creator  of  the  ends  of 
the  earth  fainteth  not,  neither  is  weary."  It 
is  He  that  sitteth  on  the  circle  of  the  earth. 
All  nations  are  as  nothing  before  Him;  they 
are  a  mere  drop  in  the  bucket.  He  taketh  up 
the  isles  as  a  liliputian  thing.  He  weigheth 
the  mountains,  holds  the  ocean  in  His  hand, 
metes  out  heaven  with  a  span.  Such  is  our 
God.  How  wonderful  His  greatness!  how 
overpowering!  What  need  of  ours  to-day  is 
too  sore  for  such  greatness?  Are  we  weak? 
here  is  power.  Do  we  want  a  revival?  here 
is  the  power.  Are  your  sins  like  scarlet, 
friend?  here  is  all  power.  He  can  save  to 
the  uttermost.  He  saved  Paul;  He  saved 
Bunyan;  He  saved  Hadley;  He  can  save  you. 
What  difference  does  it  make  to  the  ocean 
whether  you  launch  a  pleasure  boat  on  it  or 
a  battleship,  Dreadnaught !  What  difference 
to  the  mountain  whether  a  snowflake  falls  on 
it  or  an  avalanche?  Can  we  not  trust  Him? 
Can  we  not  cast  our  care  on  Him,  yea,  all  of 


THE  GOD  OF  ALL  COMFORT      21 

it  ?  "  He  giveth  power  to  the  faint,  and  to 
them  that  have  no  might  He  increaseth 
strength/^ 

Out  in  California  last  winter  at  our  Mount 
Wilson  observatory,  one  of  the  professors  was 
telling  a  company  of  friends  a  story.  It  was  at 
Lake  Geneva  it  happened.  He  was  all  ready, 
sitting  down  anxiously  waiting  for  the  eclipse. 
One  of  the  workmen  was  watering  some 
flowers  in  the  garden  and  he  called  him  in  to 
see  it.  Looking  at  it  a  while,  he  turned  and 
said,  "  Well,  Professor,  that's  the  slickest  job 
I  ever  saw.'*  What  he  meant  was  that  he 
realised  for  the  first  time  what  an  eclipse  was. 
The  greatness  of  it  filled  him  with  wonder.  To 
engineer  these  million  shining  worlds,  from  day 
to  day,  without  a  hitch ;  to  have  every  one  come 
in  on  the  tick,  and  at  the  same  time  to  paint  the 
beauty  of  the  pansies  he  was  watering — it  was 
to  him  a  new  and  startling  discovery.  Here 
is  our  old  world  doing  its  million  and  a  half 
miles  every  day,  going  sometimes  slower,  some- 
times faster,  and  coming  in  on  the  dot.  More 
than  fifty  thousand  miles  have  we  travelled 
since  coming  into  this  building  one  hour  ago, 
and  not  one  of  you  has  felt  a  jar.  Not  a 
babe  wakened!  not  a  dewdrop  shaken!  And 
all  these  million  worlds  moving!  Nothing 
still!    Countless,  colossal,  rushing  at  lightning 


22  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

rate,  yet  no  collision,  no  confusion !  "  Not 
one  of  them  faileth,"  says  the  prophet.  Not 
one  comes  in  a  moment  tardy.  Stradivarius 
tried  to  make  a  dozen  violins  varying  in  tone, 
but  was  foiled.  Frederick  the  Great  strove 
to  make  a  few  clocks  swing  their  pendulums 
together,  but  he  gave  it  up.  Yet  here  are 
pendulums  of  different  lengths,  longer,  shorter, 
swinging  every  way, — this  way,  that  way,  yon 
way — and  not  one  ever  misses  its  function. 
How  is  it  possible  for  an  intelligent  man  to 
be  an  atheist? 

I  think  it  is  well  for  us  to-day  to  cultivate 
more  the  spirit  of  wonder.  Wonder  is  a  good 
thing;  it  is  one  of  the  doors  into  the  temple 
of  worship.  One  trouble  with  our  time  is  that 
we  have  ceased  wondering.  Horace's  nil  ad- 
mirari  theory  of  life  has  become  one  of  the 
gospels  of  the  age.  Ruskin  says,  "  I  would 
rather  live  in  a  cottage  and  wonder  at  every- 
thing than  live  in  Warwick  Castle  and  wonder 
at  nothing."  Little  sympathy  have  we  with  the 
man  who  never  wonders.  We  so  easily  drift  into 
apathy  and  dulness !  We  lose  our  enthusiasm, 
our  freshness.  We  are  exposed  to  a  great  dan- 
ger to-day — the  dying  out  of  the  sense  of  sur- 
prise. We  cross  the  ocean  on  the  hunt  for 
novelty,  while  novelties  surpassing  Gulliver 
are  under  our  feet.    There  is  nothing  in  ^sop, 


THE  GOD  OF  ALL  COMFORT       23 

nothing  in  La  Fontaine,  nothing  in  Dean 
Swift  to  equal  the  magic  of  this  California 
sunshine.  There  is  not  a  first  night  in  Paris 
that  is  not  flat  compared  with  what  you  have 
seen  this  morning. 

Now  the  Jew  was  a  great  wonderer.  Na- 
ture to  him  was  a  sacrament.  It  fed  his  faith; 
it  revealed  God;  it  was  the  garment  of  God. 
"  The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God  and 
the  firmament  showeth  His  handiwork."  Na- 
ture was  to  the  Jew  much  what  the  Lord's 
Supper  is  to  us;  it  was  a  communion. 
Just  as  we  feed  upon  the  flesh  and  blood  of 
the  Saviour  at  the  holy  table,  so  the  Hebrew 
fed  his  heart  on  the  sea  and  the  stars  and  the 
mountains.  "  Thy  way,  O  God,  is  in  the 
sea.'*  "  I  will  lift  up  mine  eyes  unto  the  hills 
from  whence  cometh  my  help."  Last  Febru- 
ary a  man  was  telling  of  a  visit  he  had 
been  making  to  the  Grand  Canon  of  Arizona. 
As  he  stood  on  the  verge  of  the  chasm,  look- 
ing down  a  mile  sheer  into  the  yawning  gulch, 
and  then  thirteen  miles  across  to  the  hither 
wall,  he  was  speechless.  His  eyes  welled  up 
with  tears.  His  flesh  began  to  creep  and  his 
hair  to  move,  as  though  possessed  by  some 
great  fright.  There  were  two  men  by  his 
side.  They  stood  a  moment  looking  down. 
Presently  one  of  them  remarked,  "  Pretty  big 


«4  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

hole,  Tom."  "Och,  pshaw,  come  on,*'  the 
other  made  answer.  "  Let's  go.  I  wouldn't 
give  a  paper  of  pins  for  that."  It  meant  nothing 
to  him.  Nothing  to  him  that  startling  sweep 
of  wonder!  Nothing  to  him  those  ridges  of 
eternal  rock!  Nothing  to  him  that  dreadful, 
indescribable  void!  Nothing,  nothing  to 
him !  People  say  sometimes,  "  Facts,  facts, 
give  us  facts."  The  facts  are  all  about  us. 
Alas!  it  is  not  facts  we  need,  but  eyes. 
Eyes  to  see  the  grandeur,  eyes  to  see  the 
glory,  eyes  to  see  the  supernatural,  eyes  to 
see  God. 

2.  The  Glory  of  God. 

What  do  we  mean  by  the  glory  of  God? 
What  do  we  mean  by  the  glory  of  any- 
thing? By  the  glory  of  a  thing,  we  mean  that 
quality  or  attribute  which  secures  unanimity 
of  praise.  And  the  glory  of  God  is  His  praise- 
worthiness,  His  infinite  excellence.  "  Holy, 
holy,  holy.  Lord,  God  of  hosts.  The  whole 
earth  is  full  of  Thy  glory." 

"  The  glory  of  Jehovah  shall  be  revealed," 
says  the  prophet.  How?  How  is  the  glory 
of  Jehovah  revealed?  Well,  in  four  ways.  If 
you  have  analysed  the  chapter  carefully  you 
will  have  observed  that  this  pure  white  beam 
is  broken  up  into  four  colored  bands  in  the 
spectrum. 


THE  GOD  OF  ALL  COMFORT      25 

(a)  His  Holiness! 

The  glory  of  God  is  first  of  all  His  holi- 
ness. It  is  not  safe  to  exalt  a  power  to  the 
throne  till  we  know  the  character  of  that 
power.  In  the  Old  Testament,  Jehovah  is  the 
high  and  lofty  one  that  inhabiteth  eternity, 
whose  name  is  Holy.  The  principal  thing  is 
not  to  know  that  God  reigneth,  but  to  know 
what  kind  of  a  God  He  is  that  reigneth.  The 
very  first  truth  revealed  to  Isaiah  was  the  holi- 
ness of  God.  You  will  remember  how  he 
heard  the  choirs  of  Heaven  chanting  praises 
to  the  Divine  Presence.  The  one  choir  cried 
out,  "  Holy,  holy,  holy  is  Jehovah" ;  the  other 
choir  responded,  "  The  whole  earth  is  full  of 
Thy  glory."  He  was  the  Holy  One — exalted, 
awful,  unapproachable.  "  To  whom  then  will 
ye  liken  Me  that  I  should  be  equal  to  him  ?  " 
saith  the  Holy  One.  This  revelation  was  in- 
tended, remember,  for  a  generation  of  idol- 
worshippers,  who  confounded  the  Godhead 
with  the  work  of  their  own  hands.  Their 
moral  sense  had  become  blunted.  And  so  the 
prophet  begins  with  a  shuddering  sense  of  the 
sublimity  of  the  Divine  Presence.  This  is  the 
first  color  in  the  spectrum. 

(b)  His  Sovereignty! 

I  read  His  sovereignty  in  the  very  first  verse 
of  the  chapter.    "  Comfort  ye,  comfort  ye  My 


26  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

people,  saith  your  God."  These  two  personal 
pronouns  are  the  key  to  the  chapter.  You  are 
my  people;  I  am  your  Gk)d.  God  is  King. 
The  King  is  coming  back  to  His  people  to  de- 
liver them.  They  are  in  exile.  He  is  coming 
to  break  up  their  captivity  and  lead  them  home. 
Let  us  make  this  very  plain.  The  prophecy 
is  not  an  argument  from  history  to  God,  but 
from  God  to  history.  God  is  first.  God  is 
before  history.  Before  history  was  God  is. 
It  has  often  been  observed  that  the  Old  Testa- 
ment never  attempts  to  prove  God.  That  is 
true;  it  is  true,  because  God  was  never 
doubted;  His  reality  was  never  doubted.  "  In 
the  beginning  God."  The  ground  of  all  their 
hope  was  God.  "Have  ye  not  known?"  he 
goes  on;  have  ye  not  heard?  Heard  what? 
Heard  that  God  reigns!  This  is  the  con- 
trolling truth.  The  prophet  was  completely 
possessed  by  it.  "  In  the  year  that  King  Uz- 
ziah  died,  I  saw  the  Lord  sitting  upon  a  throne, 
high  and  lifted  up,  and  His  train  filled  the 
temple."  The  prophecy  is  not  a  chapter  of 
tabulated  history;  it  is  a  call  from  God.  He 
does  not  say  that  the  drift  of  things  is  setting 
toward  redemption.  Prophecy  is  not  reading 
the  signs  of  the  times.  Prophecy  is  not  a 
philosophy  of  history.  Prophecy  is  a  message 
from  God.     The  prophet  himself  brought  it; 


THE  GOD  OF  ALL  COMFORT      27 

and  the  warrant  for  the  discharge  of  the  peo- 
ple is  the  sovereignty  of  God.  Isaiah's  con- 
temporaries were  polytheists,  and  the  truth  he 
is  ever  enforcing  is  the  government  of  the 
world  and  of  human  history  by  one  Su- 
preme Being,  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  even 
Jehovah. 

(c)  His  Grace. 

"  Comfort  ye,  comfort  ye  My  people,  saith 
your  God.  Speak  ye  comfortably  to  Jeru- 
salem; and  cry  unto  her  that  her  warfare  is 
accomplished,  that  her  iniquity  is  pardoned, 
that  she  hath  received  of  Jehovah's  hand 
double  for  all  her  sins."  It  is  Jehovah  who  is 
speaking,  mark,  Jehovah,  the  sovereign  God. 
And  how  does  He  speak  ?  He  speaks 
graciously.  He  speaks  to  the  heart.  Do  not 
argue,  do  not  reason,  do  not  philosophise.  He 
insists.  Speak  comfortably.  Speak  to  the 
heart  of  Jerusalem.  Proclaim  pardon  and 
peace. 

Let  us  again  make  this  very  plain.  The 
prophecy  is  full  of  theology.  It  pictures  in 
glowing  colours  the  hope  of  man's  destiny. 
But  first  of  all,  and  foremost,  it  is  a  simple 
revelation  of  grace.  It  is  a  message  of  com- 
fort; it  comes  by  sheer  force  of  love  to  the 
heart.  "  Her  warfare  is  accomplished,"  liter- 
ally, the  time  is  up;  "  her  iniquity  is  pardoned;" 


28  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

literally,  the  debt  is  cancelled.  You  have  heard 
of  good  men  engaging  to  do  good  by  stealth. 
We  all  have  known  rich,  glad,  grateful  hearts 
trying  to  communicate  gifts  to  the  poor  at  some 
happy  Christmas  season  without  wounding 
their  feelings,  and  so  going  at  it  in  some  round- 
about way,  doing  good  as  it  were  incognito.  So 
here  the  very  phrasing  is  gracious.  Mark  the 
generosity  of  the  word  double;  "  For  she  hath 
received  of  Jehovah's  hand  double  for  all  her 
sins." 

(d)  His  Salvation. 

The  revelation  made  to  their  hearts,  a  revela- 
tion of  peace  and  pardon,  is  now  to  issue  in 
their  deliverance.  It  is  the  grace  of  God  that 
bringeth  salvation.  First,  it  was  comfort; 
"  Speak  comfortably."  Now  it  is  action; 
"  prepare  the  way."  We  are  not  to  sit  down 
in  empty,  easeful  indolence,  contented  with  our 
own  forgiveness.  We  are  to  be  up  and  doing. 
Other  voices  are  calling.  After  our  own 
hearts  are  right  we  must  go  to  work  and  set 
the  world  right.  The  redemption  of  Israel  is 
not  to  be  simply  an  inward  feeling;  it  is  to 
be  an  outward  fact.  God  is  about  to  display 
His  providence.  Babylon  is  going  to  fall. 
The  mountains  are  to  be  levelled,  the  valleys 
uplifted,  the  rough  places  smoothed,  and  the 
uneven  path  made  a  level  plain  to  Jerusalem. 


THE  GOD  OF  ALL  COMFORT      29 

"  And  the  glory  of  Jehovah  shall  be  revealed, 
and  all  flesh  shall  see  it  together,  for  the  mouth 
of  Jehovah  hath  spoken  it." 

Now  this  it  is  that  constitutes  the  glory  of 
God;  His  holiness,  His  sovereignty,  His  grace, 
His  salvation.  And  please  note  the  order. 
There  is  logic  in  the  sequence,  there  is  order 
in  the  spectrum.  Holiness  comes  first,  then 
sovereignty,  then  grace,  then  salvation.  That 
is  to  say,  salvation  is  rooted  and  grounded 
in  grace;  grace  is  rooted  and  grounded  in 
sovereignty;  sovereignty  is  rooted  and 
grounded  in  holiness.  There  is  always  a  di- 
vine succession.  The  primary  truth  of  the  Old 
Testament  is  the  sovereignty  of  God;  the 
primary  truth  of  the  New  Testament  is  the 
fatherhood  of  God.  It  would  have  been  a 
calamity  had  the  order  been  reversed.  Even 
to-day  it  is  becoming  difficult  to  save  the  great 
doctrine  of  fatherhood  from  abuse.  God  is 
gracious,  says  the  prophet,  but  first  He  is  holy. 
His  contempt  and  scorn  for  their  idols  are  due 
to  his  sense  of  God's  holiness.  When  Israel 
was  carried  into  exile,  away  from  temple  and 
altar  and  priest,  she  lapsed  into  idolatry.  And 
the  chapter  is  full  of  scorn,  scorn  for  their 
idols,  aye,  and  sarcasm.  Idolatry  was  the  text 
on  which  the  prophets  rested  their  most 
trenchant  diatribes.    "  To  whom  will  ye  liken 


30  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

Jehovah  ?  "  To  an  image  ?  An  image  ?  why, 
a  blacksmith  made  it.  Who  taught  an 
image  intelHgence?  Idolatry  is  intellectual 
weakness.  The  idol  is  a  poor  shabby  effort 
by  which  to  represent  the  infinite.  It  has  not 
one  single  feature  by  which  He  would  choose 
to  be  known.  ''  Thou  shalt  worship  the  Lord, 
thy  God,  with  mind  as  well  as  heart  and  soul." 
For  the  Lord,  our  God,  is  glorious. 

3.  The  Gentleness  of  God! 

"  Comfort  ye,  comfort  ye."  "  Speak  ye 
comfortably  to  Jerusalem;"  literally,  speak  to 
the  heart  of  Jerusalem.  But  Jerusalem  was 
six  hundred  miles  away,  and  it  was  in  ruins. 
And  the  heart  of  Jerusalem,  where  was  it  ? 
Ah,  the  heart  of  Jerusalem  was  with  her  peo- 
ple in  bondage,  and  it  was  well-nigh  broken 
and  hopeless. 

You  will  notice  that  the  appeal  is  not  made 
to  the  intellect  nor  to  the  conscience,  but  to 
the  heart.  "  Speak  to  the  heart  of  Jeru- 
salem." Speak  tenderly,  wooingly.  The  ad- 
dress is  that  of  a  lover.  Do  not  use  force. 
That  mistake  the  heathen  had  made ;  they  had 
forced  their  idols  on  them.  Use  the  arts  and 
tricks  of  the  lover.  How  gentle  the  picture! 
Fifty  years  before,  these  exiles  had  left  their 
native  land.  They  had  been  driven  under  the 
lash  by  cruel  soldiers.     The  weak  ones  had 


THE  GOD  OF  ALL  COMFORT       31 

been  left  behind  on  the  march  and  the  babes 
left  to  die  upon  the  desert.  But  now  they  are 
to  return  and  how  differently !  **He  will  feed 
His  flock  like  a  shepherd,  He  will  gather  the 
lambs  in  His  arm  and  carry  them  in  His 
bosom,  and  will  gently  lead  those  that  have 
their  young.''  Thus  is  pictured  the  gentleness 
of  our  God. 

God  has  two  thrones,  said  the  old  writer, 
one  in  the  highest  heaven,  the  other  in  the 
lowliest  heart.  Why  is  it  that  the  gospel  is 
so  precious  when  the  chair  is  empty?  It  is 
because  the  touch  of  Jesus  is  so  exquisitely 
gentle.  "  Thy  gentleness  hath  made  me 
great."  It  will  be  noted  that  the  greatness 
of  God  and  His  gentleness  are  found  side  by 
side  in  this  chapter.  Gentleness  is  not  weak- 
ness, mark  you;  gentleness  is  strength.  The 
Nasmyth  hammer  can  fall  so  delicately  as  just 
to  crack  a  piece  of  porcelain,  and  it  can  smite 
like  a  pile-driver;  the  perfection  of  the  giant 
sledge  is  its  blending.  The  perfection  of 
Jehovah's  nature  is  its  perfect  blending.  A 
bank  of  snow,  some  one  says,  will  stop  a  bullet; 
the  bullet  will  plough  through  a  like  thickness 
of  steel,  but  the  soft  velvet  snowbank  takes 
the  bloodthirsty  missile  and  "  hugs  it  into  still- 
ness." There  is  something  better  for  us  than 
the  greatness  of  God,  something  better  than 


82  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

the  glory  of  God;  it  is  the  gentleness  of  God. 
The  sun  is  thirty  odd  million  leagues  away.  It 
heats  the  whole  solar  system;  the  flames 
thereon  are  four  hundred  thousand  miles  high, 
yet  it  comes  with  such  exquisite  gentleness  as 
to  just  make  the  rosebud  blush  and  redden. 

So  let  us  not  be  bullied  out  of  our  faith 
by  the  mere  argument  of  size;  let  us  not  be 
frightened  by  nature's  vastness.  Many  there 
are  to-day  who  in  perplexity  are  saying,  "  How 
can  the  great  God  care  for  me  ? "  It  is 
worth  reminding  ourselves  that  there  are  some 
places  in  life  where  size  does  not  count,  where 
the  yardstick  is  an  insult.  The  baby  is  not 
big,  but  if  you  put  the  Sierras  in  one  scale 
and  the  baby  in  the  other — why,  the  baby  is 
bigger.  What  father  is  there,  who,  if  he  had 
a  mansion  so  vast  that  it  stretched  from  the 
Dipper  to  the  Southern  Cross,  would  not  say, 
"  My  child  is  greater  "  ?  A  lump  of  pig-iron 
outweighs  the  brain  of  Browning,  but  neverthe- 
less Browning  is  the  greater.  This  reasoning 
runs  clear  up  to  the  very  roof  of  heaven.  To 
think  the  world  is  to  be  superior  to  the  world ;  to 
know  the  stars  is  to  be  greater  than  the  stars. 
There  is  the  arithmetic  of  the  head,  but  let 
it  not  be  forgotten  that  there  is  another  kind 
of  arithmetic — ^the  arithmetic  of  the  heart. 
Over  against  a  vast  and  infinite  universe  we 


THE  GOD  OF  ALL  COMFORT      33 

place  a  vast  and  infinite  soul.  The  mind  that 
can  read  an  enigma  is  greater  than  the  enigma. 
The  farther  photography  peers  into  space,  the 
greater  becomes  the  photographer.  It  was  my 
privilege  recently  to  go  through  the  great 
Cunarder,  the  Lusitania.  She  is  seven  hun- 
dred and  sixty  feet  long,  one  hundred  and 
sixty  longer  than  the  Great  Eastern,  She 
is  eighty-eight  feet  wide,  five  feet  wider  than 
the  Great  Eastern.  Her  tonnage  is  thirty-two 
thousand  five  hundred;  her  horsepower  is 
sixty-eight  thousand,  the  Great  Eastern's  was 
eleven  thousand.  She  travels  twenty-five 
knots  an  hour.  She  is  the  first  vessel  to  have 
four  screws.  She  carries  a  complement  of 
eight  hundred  men.  What  a  wonderful  piece 
of  scientific  skill !  The  guide  took  us  up  into 
the  pilot's  room  and  showed  us  a  little  needle. 
One  could  easily  have  put  a  dozen  of  them 
in  his  pocket.  "That,"  said  our  guide,  "is 
the  Master  of  the  ship."  Perhaps  the  great- 
est triumph  of  scientific  distillation  is  the 
miracle  of  radium.  One  ounce  of  the  precious 
essence,  it  is  claimed,  will  lift  ten  thousand 
tons  a  mile  high.  Never  be  afraid  of  Jesus 
because  He  looks  weak.  Never  doubt  your 
divinity  because  you  are  not  big.  The  great 
forces  in  life  are  not  dependent  on  size.  Elec- 
tricity needs  but  a  wire,  magnetism  but  a 


34  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

needle.  The  supreme  force  of  all  is  life,  and 
life  asks  not  for  stars  or  mountains;  life 
simply  calls  for  a  babe,  a  flower,  a  tree,  a  bird. 
In  all  this  bewildering  and  mighty  vastness, 
it  is  true  that  man  looks  small,  but  the 
greatest  thing  of  all  is  love,  and  man  can 
love. 

Science  has  made  quite  a  wonderful  discov- 
ery during  these  last  few  years,  a  discovery 
that,  without  doubt,  is  going  to  add  greatly 
to  the  strength  and  reality  of  religion. 
Formerly  it  was  said  that  all  matter  consisted 
of  atoms.  The  lowest  form  of  material  ex- 
istence was  the  atom.  Nobody  ever  saw  this 
atom,  be  it  noted;  it  is  a  purely  theoretical 
conception;  it  is  so  small  that  even  the  mi- 
croscope cannot  find  it.  To-day,  however,  the 
atom  is  broken  up,  and  presto,  it  is  found  to 
be  a  universe.  It  is  found  that  in  every  atom 
there  is  a  system  of  stars.  Electrons  they  are 
named.  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  calls  them  electric 
charges.  An  electron  is  a  point  of  electricity, 
and  it  is  so  much  smaller  than  the  atom 
that  it  wanders  about  in  it,  as  one  scientist 
puts  it,  "  much  as  a  mouse  wanders  about  in 
a  cathedral."  Furthermore  we  are  told  that 
these  electrons  move  in  orbits  like  the  stars. 
It  is  thus  literally  true  that  there  are  worlds 
under  our   feet  as  well  as  over  our  heads. 


THE  GOD  OF  ALL  COMFORT      35 

There  is  the  infinitely  little  as  well  as  the  in- 
finitely large,  and  one  is  almost  tempted  to  say 
that  the  former  is  the  more  wonderful.  Man 
stands  midway  between  two  infinities — the  in- 
finitely massive  and  the  infinitely  minute; 
galaxies  above  him,  galaxies  below  him.  How 
small  a  drop  of  water  seems!  A  drop  of 
water  is  a  world.  Truly,  if  astronomy  makes 
man  little,  bacteriology  makes  him  big.  If 
you  catch  a  butterfly  in  the  summer  time  you 
will  find  left  on  your  finger  a  fine  powder. 
Maybe  you  will  look  at  it,  blow  it  away,  and 
call  it  dust.  But  bring  a  microscope.  Now 
the  dust  is  seen  to  be  the  most  beautiful  and 
exquisitely  fashioned  feathers.  After  all,  a  lit- 
tle search  soon  teaches  us  that  size  has  but 
little  to  do  with  the  greatness  or  glory  of  a 
thing.  For  the  greatest  thing  in  this  world, 
let  us  repeat,  is  love,  and  a  child  can  love. 
George  W.  Cable,  in  one  of  his  stories  of  Creole 
life,  tells  of  going  to  an  old  taxidermist,  to 
have  a  humming-bird  stuffed.  "  I  was  say- 
ing," he  goes  on,  ''  that  a  humming-bird  was 
a  very  small  thing  to  ask  him  to  stuff.  But 
he  stopped  me  with  his  lifted  palm.  *  My 
fran',  a  humming-bird  has  de  passione,  de 
ecstasie  !    One  drop  of  blood  wid  de  passione 

in  it '  He  waved  his  hand  with  a  jerk  of 

the  thumb  in  disdain  of  spoken  words,  and 


S6  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

it  was  I  who  added:   *  Is  bigger  than  the 
sun!'" 

"Do  you  suppose,"  said  Willie,  as  his  lit- 
tle sister  laid  away  her  largest  apple  for  a 
sick  girl,  "  do  you  suppose  that  God  cares  about 
such  little  folks?  Is  He  not  too  busy  caring 
for  the  big  folks  to  notice  us  much  ?  "  Mary 
shook  her  head  and  pointed  to  Mamma  hold- 
ing the  baby :  "  Do  you  think  that  Mamma 
would  forget  the  baby?  She  thinks  of  the 
baby  first,  'cause  he's  the  littlest."  The  child 
was  right.  Let  the  child  teach  us.  God's  first 
concern  is  for  the  feeble  things,  the  little 
things.  "  Whosoever  shall  offend  one  of  these 
little  ones,  that  believe  in  Me,  it  were  better 
for  him  that  a  millstone  were  hanged  about 
his  neck."  "  Like  as  a  father  pitieth  his  chil- 
dren, so  the  Lord  pitieth  them  that  fear  Him, 
for  He  knoweth  our  frame,  He  remembereth 
that  we  are  dust."  "  Not  a  sparrow  falls  to  the 
ground  without  our  Father's  notice."  He 
always  knows.  He  knows  me.  He  knows 
you.  No  one  else  does.  I  do  not  know  my- 
self. You  do  not  know  yourself.  You  have 
never  seen  your  own  face.  Your  friends  have. 
You  have  not.  But  God  knows  all.  He  knows 
your  past.  He  knows  your  future.  He  knows 
what  is  bad  for  you;  He  knows  what  is  good 
for  you ;  He  knows  what  is  best  for  you.    He 


THE  GOD  OF  ALL  COMFORT      37 

knows  when  your  work  is  done.  He  knows 
the  whole  way.  He  knows  the  ups  and  downs. 
He  knows  the  medicine  you  need.  He  knows 
how  to  pilot  you  over  the  bar.  He  knows  just 
when  to  call  you  aboard  and  let  slip  the  cables. 
"  The  very  hairs  of  your  head  are  all  num- 
bered " — not  counted,  numbered.  "  He  telleth 
the  number  of  the  stars."  He  does  not  count 
them;  He  does  not  need  to  count  them;  He 
knows  without  counting.  "  He  calleth  them 
all  by  name."  How  many  did  we  say?  A 
thousand  million!  Verily  what  a  God  is  our 
God!  You  look  up  into  the  heavens  at  night. 
How  plain  those  stars  are,  you  say!  How 
clearly  you  can  see  them,  one  by  one,  looking 
up !  He  can  see  your  life  just  as  clearly,  look- 
ing down.  Nothing  is  too  small  for  God.  "  He 
feedeth  His  flock  like  a  shepherd.  He  will 
gather  the  lambs  in  His  arm  and  carry  them 
in  His  bosom,  and  will  gently  lead  those  that 
have  their  young." 

Men  tell  us  sometimes  that  God  is  so  busy 
up  there  among  these  infinite  worlds,  that  He 
cannot  bother  to  come  to  you  and  me.  "  He 
is  not  bothered  about  my  sin,"  says  the  new 
theology.  How  many  did  the  shepherd  go 
after  when  the  ninety  and  nine  were  in  the 
fold?  How  many  pieces  of  silver  were  lost? 
How  many  prodigals  returned?     Let  us  re- 


38  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

member  this.  This  is  not  the  tyranny  of  num- 
bers. This  is  not  the  statistics  of  the  crowd. 
Christ  did  not  work  on  the  scale  of  millions; 
He  worked  on  the  scale  of  one.  "  There  is 
joy  in  the  presence  of  the  angels  of  God  over 
one  sinner  that  repenteth."  Oh,  those  words 
are  a  perpetual  wonder.  If  it  said,  "  There 
is  joy  in  heaven  over  a  nation  converted,"  we 
would  not  be  surprised,  but  joy  over  one — 
that  is  the  startling  astonishment. 

*•  Ring  the  bells  of  heaven, 
There  is  joy  to-day 
For  a  soul  returning  from  the  wild." 

One  soul  coming  home  rings  the  bells  of 
heaven.  It  is  almost  unbelievable;  but  it  is 
the  immortal  message  of  the  Master,  the  value 
of  one  human  soul.  No  teacher  ever  worked 
on  so  minute  a  scale  as  Jesus.  The  crowds 
followed  Him,  but  He  gave  His  deepest  secrets 
to  the  few. 

How  many  of  you  are  lonely?  How  many 
of  you  are  sad  this  morning?  How  many  of 
you  are  saying,  "  There  is  no  one  living  who 
cares  for  me;  if  I  were  to  go  hence  to-mor- 
row, nobody  would  shed  a  tear.  I'm  alone 
in  the  world,  all  alone."  Nonsense,  woman! 
Listen !  "  Hast  thou  not  known  ?  hast  thou 
not  heard?     The  Everlasting  God,  Jehovah, 


THE  GOD  OF  ALL  COMFORT      39 

the  Creator  of  the  ends  of  the  earth,  fainteth 
not,  neither  is  weary;  there  is  no  searching 
of  His  understanding.  He  giveth  power  to  the 
faint,  and  to  him  that  hath  no  might  He  in- 
creaseth  strength.  Even  the  youths  shall  faint 
and  be  weary,  and  the  young  men  shall  ut- 
terly fall ;  but  they  that  wait  for  Jehovah  shall 
renew  their  strength ;  they  shall  mount  up  with 
wings,  as  eagles;  they  shall  run  and  not  be 
weary;  they  shall  walk  and  not  faint." 

*•  The  little  bird  sang  east; 
And  the  little  bird  sang  west; 
And  I  smiled  to  think  God's  greatness 
Flows  around  my  incompleteness, 
Round  my  restlessness  His  rest." 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  COMFORT 


THE   GOSPEL  OF  COMFORT 

'♦Go  and  tell  John  the  things  which  you  do  hear 
and  see  ;  the  blind  receive  their  sight,  the  lame  walk, 
the  lepers  are  cleansed,  the  dead  are  raised  up,  and 
the  poor  have  good  tidings  preached  to  them." — 
Matthew  ii :  4. 

COULD  anything  be  simpler?  First, 
''  Come  and  see,"  then,"  Go  and  tell." 
Such  is  the  programme  of  Jesus. 
We  are  called  first  to  be  disciples,  then 
apostles.  Discipleship  is  the  beginner's  grade 
in  the  school  of  the  Master.  There  are  higher 
heights,  there  are  after  promotions.  This  is 
the  second  division,  "  Go  and  tell." 

John  Ruskin  once  said,  "  The  more  I  think 
of  it,  the  more  I  find  this  conviction  impressed 
upon  me,  that  the  greatest  thing  a  human  soul 
ever  does  in  this  world  is  to  see  something, 
and  then  tell  what  it  saw  in  a  plain  way."  To 
see  and  to  tell,  this  is  the  programme  of  the 
prophet.  And  we  must  needs  see  before  we 
can  tell.  The  prophet  speaks  not  at  second 
hand.  Like  our  Master,  "  we  are  to  speak  that 
which  we  know,  and  bear  witness  of  that 
which  we  have  seen."    *'  Go  and  tell." 

Tell  whom?  Tell  John  and  Mary  and  Will- 
lam.  Tell  Lydia  and  Cornelius  and  Peter. 
43 


44  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

Tell  the  grocery  man.  Tell  the  newspaper 
boy.  Tell  the  servant  in  your  kitchen.  Tell 
that  black  man  journeying  along  the  highway. 
Go  near  and  join  thyself  to  his  chariot.  We 
are  to  be  advertising  bureaus.  We  are  to  cul- 
tivate the  department  of  publicity.  Advertis- 
ing is  the  secret  of  success  in  the  world  of 
commerce.  More  than  two  thousand  million 
dollars,  it  is  said,  are  expended  annually  in 
our  country  in  advertising.  John  Wanamaker 
alone  pays  out  half  a  million.  Business  houses, 
we  are  told,  are  selling  eighty  per  cent, 
of  their  goods  by  personal  solicitation.  You 
cannot  do  business  to-day  in  a  corner.  And 
we  are  to  cultivate  the  commercial  impulse. 
We  are  to  be  salesmen,  circulars,  solicitors, 
drummers.     "  Go  and  tell." 

Tell  what ?  "Go  and  tell  the  things  which 
you  do  hear  and  see."  What  things  may  they 
be?  Are  they  worth  the  telling?  Are  they 
true  ?  Have  they  been  vindicated  ?  They  have 
been  challenged.  Has  the  challenge  been 
proven  ?  Did  not  we  read  recently  of  the  Scot- 
tish physician,  who  told  his  secretary  to  go 
through  his  library  and  burn  all  the  books  on 
surgery  published  prior  to  1890,  that  he  might 
save  those  brought  out  between  1890  and  1900, 
although  they  were  no  good.  Any  medical 
book  to-day  that  is  fifteen  years  old  forsooth, 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  COMFORT        45 

belongs  by  right  to  the  ash  heap.  Is  it  thus 
with  what  we  call  our  Evangel?  Is  it  an  in- 
valid surgical  blunder  that  no  up-to-date  phy- 
sician can  accept?  Is  it  a  local  credulity  that 
the  world  has  repudiated?  Is  it  a  quack 
physic  that  the  superstitious  have  taught  us? 
Or  is  it  the  great  elixir,  the  real  restorative 
of  the  soul?  The  man  who  first  masters  the 
virus  of  tuberculosis  will  not  selfishly  keep  it 
to  himself;  he  will  publish  it  abroad;  he  will 
wing  the  finding  afar.  And  if  to  us  there  has 
come  a  treatment  for  something  worse  than  the 
tubercular  virus,  shall  we  hush  it  or  shall  we 
herald  it?    Which? 

What,  then,  may  these  things  be  ?  What  are 
we  to  tell  ?  What  does  the  gospel  claim  to  do  ? 
What  does  it  propose  to  correct,  to  establish? 
Has  it  any  trophies  to  show?  Has  it  any 
flags  to  unfurl?  Has  it  any  laurels  to  em- 
blazon ?  Let  us  go  out  and  reconnoitre,  and 
let  us  carry  with  us  a  cautious  step,  a  mind  judi- 
cial, an  eye  circumspect,  and  a  strategy  alert. 

There  are  three  dark  facts  in  human  life 
that  from  the  beginning  have  baffled  the  power 
and  the  skill  and  the  wit  of  man.  These  three 
facts  are: 

(i)  The  problem  of  Guilt; 

(2)  The  problem  of  Grief; 

(3)  The  problem  of  the  Grave. 


46  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

There  are  others,  to  be  sure,  but  all  others  are 
pregnable,  all  others  are  vulnerable.  The  em- 
pire of  sin  however,  the  empire  of  sorrow, 
and  the  empire  of  death  remain  unchal- 
lenged. They  hold  the  field.  They  are  the 
deadly  serpents  in  the  garden  of  life.  Let  us 
consider  them. 

I.  Guilt. 

Has  the  gospel  any  rival  in  the  realm  of 
guilt?  Guilt  is  the  child  of  sin.  Let  us  back 
to  the  parent.  Has  the  gospel  any  competitor 
in  the  empire  of  sin?  The  gospel  comes  giv- 
ing liberty  to  them  that  are  bruised  and  open- 
ing the  prison  to  them  that  are  bound.  Has 
it  any  co-rival?  What  has  Christianity  been 
doing  these  nineteen  hundred  years?  Drying 
human  tears?  No!  Removing  human  sor- 
row? No!  Pulling  the  punishment  out  of 
life?  No,  all  this  is  minor.  Christ's  work  is 
redemptive,  taking  sin  away,  not  penalty. 
"  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away 
the  sin  of  the  world."  "  For  He  hath  delivered 
us  from  the  power  of  darkness  and  hath  trans- 
lated us  into  the  kingdom  of  His  dear  Son  in 
whom  we  have  redemption  through  His  blood." 
Redemption  means  recovery;  recovery  of  the 
soul  from  its  evil  condition,  changing  the  heart 
of  stone  into  a  heart  of  flesh,  restoration  by 
love's  power,  giving  sight  to  the  blind,  hearing 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  COMFORT        47 

to  the  deaf,  life  to  the  dead — ^these  are  the 
trophies.    Go  and  tell  John  these  things. 

Our  Evangel  is  a  glad  story  of  forgiveness. 
It  pardons  the  sinner,  but  infinitely  more  it 
does;  henceforward  it  makes  impossible  the 
sin;  it  refashions  the  heart.  Of  what  avail  is 
any  appeal  to  the  conduct  till  the  nature  is 
changed!  Nathaniel  Hawthorne  has  a  story 
called  "  Earth's  Holocaust.'*  It  is  a  story  of 
some  men  and  women  who  had  become  weary 
of  their  foibles  and  fripperies,  and  had  de- 
termined to  make  an  end  of  them  all  in  a  bon- 
fire. The  site  selected  was  one  of  the  broad 
prairies  of  the  West,  where  no  human  habita- 
tion would  be  endangered  by  the  flames  and 
where  a  vast  assemblage  might  witness  the  as- 
tonishing spectacle.  So  carts  and  carriages 
were  hired  to  freight  to  the  spot  all  follies 
and  frivolities.  There  were  papers,  maga- 
zines, ledgers,  commentaries,  pedigrees, 
gowns,  wardrobes,  marriage  certificates,  hogs- 
heads of  liquor,  munitions  of  war,  muskets, 
tobacco.  What  a  mountain  it  was !  And  when 
lighted  what  a  blaze!  What  a  fierce  and 
dazzling  lustre!  Such  heat!  Such  hissing! 
Such  crackling  and  riotous  combustion !  Iron 
and  steel  were  melted  as  though  wax.  It 
threatened  to  set  the  sky  on  fire.  The  flames 
licked  up  the  liquor,  as  though,  like  some  old 


48  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

toper,  they  loved  it.  The  drums  began  to  beat 
and  the  trumpets  to  blare  with  a  roar  that  made 
the  welkin  echo.  Soon  the  sun  grew  pale. 
This,  the  wise  ones  said,  is  Liberty  enlighten- 
ing the  world.  There  was  noticed  standing 
beside  the  pyre  a  company  of  reprobates,  who 
looked  downcast  at  each  other,  now  that  their 
business  was  gone.  And  Satan  himself  came 
up  to  comfort  them.  "  Be  not  cast  down,  my 
peers,"  he  began,  "  there  is  one  thing  these 
wiseacres  have  forgotten."  "  What  is  that  ?  " 
they  all  shouted.  "  Why,  the  human  heart," 
said  His  Majesty  with  a  significant  leer.  "  Un- 
less they  hit  upon  some  trick  of  purifying  that 
foul  thing,  it  will  soon  be  the  same  old  world 
again." 

How  wise  these  words!  How  far-reach- 
ing! Pardon  is  well,  but  until  the  heart-tem- 
ple is  reconstructed  what  profit  in  mere  par- 
don? Impossible  to  live  the  new  life  with 
the  old  heart!  The  old  heart  can  only  issue 
in  the  old  life.  Of  old  the  astronomer  gazed 
so  long  at  the  sun  that  he  could  see  nothing 
else;  the  image  having  been  burned  into  him! 
In  like  manner  let  this  image  be  burned  into 
us,  viz. :  that  Christianity  is  a  religion  of  re- 
demption. This  is  its  dominating  aim.  Jesus 
was  not  a  reformer  but  a  Redeemer.  His  first 
appeal  is  not  to  the  conversation  but  to  the 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  COMFORT        49 

conscience.  He  was  manifested  to  take 
away  sin,  the  guilt  of  it,  the  power  of 
it,  the  love  of  it.  If  He  was  simply  a  great 
philosopher  as  we  are  being  told,  how  comes 
it  that  more  than  one-fourth  of  His  life  story 
relates  to  His  passion?  If  He  was  simply  a 
wonderful  teacher,  how  is  it  that,  from  the  first 
chapter  of  Acts  to  the  last  of  Revelation,  there 
is  hardly  a  quotation  from  His  lips?  This  is 
passing  strange.  Every  page  is  dripping  wet 
with  the  wine  of  His  blood.  Strange  too  that 
Paul  should  begin  his  gospel,  not  with  the 
birth  of  Christ,  but  with  His  death.  "  I  de- 
livered to  you,  first  of  all,  that  which  I  also 
received,  how  that  Christ  died  for  our  sins, 
according  to  the  Scriptures."  Thoreau,  when 
asked  whether  or  no  he  had  made  his  peace 
with  God,  replied,  "  IVe  never  quarrelled  with 
Him."  And  Heinrich  Heine  on  his  mattress 
grave  as  he  called  it,  and  in  the  very  article 
of  an  exceedingly  painful  passing,  said,  "  God 
will  forgive  me,  that's  His  business."  But  how 
flippant  are  such  words !  "  Not  quarrelled 
with  God "  ?  How  self-complacent  such 
boasting  seems!  Verily  the  poor  publican  of 
the  parable  knew  better.  "  God  will  forgive 
me."  Blessed  be  His  name.  He  will;  but  can 
He  without  the  cross  ?  "  We  have  redemp- 
tion through  His  blood,"  saith  the  apostle. 


50  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

"  For,  if  while  we  were  enemies,  we  were  rec- 
onciled to  God  through  the  death  of  His  Son, 
much  more,  being  reconciled,  shall  we  be  saved 
by  His  life."  If  God  could  have  forgiven  us 
without  Calvary,  why  should  there  have  been 
a  Calvary?  Nay,  nay,  it  were  impossible.  *'  It 
behooved  the  Christ  to  suffer."  The  cross  is 
the  very  centre  and  core  of  the  Christian's 
faith.  A  gospel  without  a  cross  is  an  im- 
potent gospel!  It  lacks  the  needful  dynamic. 
"  We  preach  Christ  crucified,  unto  the  Jews  a 
stumbling  block,  unto  the  Greeks  foolishness, 
but  unto  those  who  are  saved,  both  Jews  and 
Greeks,  Christ  the  power  of  God."  The  cross 
is  like  the  famous  sword  Excalibur  in  the 
Arthurian  legend.  It  could  not  only  wound, 
but  being  laid  on  the  wound,  could  heal.  The 
cross  makes  sin  known,  but  it  also  makes  Him 
known  who  takes  away  sin. 

Let  us  return  to  our  essential  orders.  We 
have  not  been  commissioned  to  lecture  on  as- 
tronomy, nor  biology,  nor  botany,  nor  to  read 
essays  on  the  old  Hebrew  poets.  Our  work 
is  to  tell  forth  a  glad  story,  a  story  that  can- 
not be  told  by  science  or  art  or  literature. 
Men's  lives  can  be  changed  and  made  com- 
pletely anew.  Sin  can  be  forgiven;  not  only 
forgiven,  forgotten ;  not  only  forgotten,  blotted 
clean  off  the  slate.    It  is  hard  to  tell  men  they 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  COMFORT        51 

are  sinners,  but  not  so  hard  when  we  know 
there  is  pardon,  and  easier  still  when  we  know 
there  is  victory.  What  we  need  to-day  is  not 
a  mere  traditional  report  of  old  formulas. 
What  we  need  to-day  is  a  fresh  vital  gripping 
of  the  old  truth,  that  "  He  loved  me  and  gave 
Himself  for  me."  "For  God  so  loved  the 
world,  that  whosoever  believeth  on  Him  should 
not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life.'*  That 
is  the  little  piece  of  radium  that  is  yet  to  lift 
the  world. 

2.  Grief. 

What  has  Christianity  to  say  to  the  problem 
of  Grief?  No  religion  can  call  itself  a  re- 
ligion and  ignore  the  problem,  and  yet,  strange 
to  say,  with  the  single  exception  of  our  own 
faith,  that  is  practically  what  they  all  do.  One 
popular  fad  to-day  says,  "  There  is  no  trouble." 
Another  teaches  that  trouble  is  so  inescapable 
that  the  best  thing  that  can  happen  to  one  is 
to  be  blown  out  candle-like,  and  several  hun- 
dred million  Buddhists  believe  it.  For  pity, 
mark  you,  is  the  keynote  of  Buddhism.  It 
cannot  mitigate;  it  cannot  remove;  it  can  sim- 
ply hold  up  the  compassionate  image  of  the 
Buddha — ^that  is  all — and  no  doubt  even  that 
is  a  comfort,  though  an  exceeding  small  one, 
to  the  hopeless,  helpless  sufferer. 

The  compassion  of  Jesus,  on  the  other  hand, 


52  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

is  infinitely  deeper,  richer,  diviner.  The  heart 
of  our  Lord  enfolded  publican  and  sinner,  high 
and  low,  rich  and  poor.  It  was  as  wide  as 
the  race.  He  is  touched  by  whatever  can 
touch  a  human  spirit.  His  miracles  are  mostly 
miracles  of  pity.  How  He  felt  for  the  woman 
taken  in  sin!  How  He  wept  at  the  grave  of 
Lazarus !  How  He  hungered  for  human  sup- 
port Himself !  "  What  ?  could  ye  not  watch 
with  Me  one  hour  ? "  In  the  hour  of  tension 
how  an  awful  weight  of  loneliness  oppressed 
Him! 

Has  it  ever  struck  you  how  few  there  were 
who  came  to  Jesus  in  His  earthly  ministry  out 
of  a  hungering  and  thirsting  to  gain  the 
eternal  life,  and  how  many  there  were  who 
came  to  Him  because  of  the  longing  of  their 
hearts  for  sympathy?  What  was  it  that  won 
you?  Was  it  His  marvellous  teaching?  Was 
it  His  wonderful  works?  Or  was  it  His 
beautiful  life  ?  I  glory  in  all,  but  as  for  me,  it 
was  none  of  these.  I  came  for  His  exquisite 
tenderness.  I  have  heard  artists  go  into 
raptures  over  the  grandeurs  of  Wagner. 
Wagner  to  be  sure  is  grand,  but  give  me  the 
pathos  of  Schumann  or  Beethoven.  It  moves 
me  more;  it  finds  me;  it  grips  me;  it  awes  the 
soul  with  a  sublime  and  noble  solemnity;  it 
opens  a  new  vista  of  hope  and  feeling.    And 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  COMFORT        53 

it  is  the  sympathy  of  Jesus  that  most  draws 
me  to  Him. 

How  full  the  Bible  is  of  tears!  How  it 
weeps !  How  oft  we  hear  the  soft,  low,  tender 
tones !  *'  Like  as  a  father  pitieth  his  children,  so 
the  Lord  pitieth  them  that  fear  Him."  When 
it  would  speak  of  a  lost  soul  it  speaks  in  the 
language  of  bereavement.  "  I  have  nour- 
ished and  brought  up  children,  and  they  have 
rebelled  against  Me."  "  How  often  would  I 
have  gathered  thee — but  ye  would  not."  Our 
God  is  a  God  of  comfort.  He  helps  us  to  be 
strong,  to  be  brave,  to  be  true.  He  fortifies 
us  in  tribulation,  enables  us  even  to  rejoice 
in  suffering.  The  Christian  is  never  so  proud 
of  his  faith  as  he  is  in  the  sick-room.  When 
everything  else  is  weakest,  it  is  strongest.  The 
little  boy  said  to  his  father,  "  Papa,  if  you 
hold  my  hand,  I  think  I  can  bear  the  pain." 
This  is  the  message  of  Jesus  to  the  broken- 
hearted. "I  will  not  leave  you  comfortless; 
I  will  come  to  you."  There  are  times  when 
the  best  lesson  to  learn  is  just  to  lean,  to  know 
that  He  is  near,  to  know  that  underneath  are 
the  everlasting  arms,  and  that  roundabout  is 
the  everlasting  love. 

3.  The  problem  of  the  Grave. 

What  has  Christianity  to  say  to  this  prob- 
lem?   What  has  it  to  say  to  the  problem  of 


54  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

death?  *' The  last  enemy  that  shall  be  de- 
stroyed is  death."  Did  you  note  the  word? 
Destroyed!  literally  done  away  with,  rendered 
helpless.  And  it  is  present,  mark — not  future. 
"  The  last  enemy  that  is  rendered  helpless  is 
death."  The  reign  of  Christ  renders  death 
helpless.  It  pulls  the  sting  out  of  the  mouth 
of  the  serpent.  It  robs  the  grave  of  its  treas- 
ure. It  changes  good-bye  into  good-night. 
"  Thanks  be  to  God,  which  giveth  us  the  vic- 
tory through  our  Lord,  Jesus  Christ." 

These  then  are  the  maladies,  this  the  cure. 
This  is  the  message  that  we  are  to  tell:  for- 
giveness of  sins,  comfort  in  trouble,  victory 
in  death.  Is  it  worth  the  telling?  Here  is 
our  gospel  ennobling,  inspiring;  here  is  our 
commission,  "Go."  Now  wherein  lies  duty? 
Let  us  see.  We  are  living  in  a  world  where 
power  is  not  a  possession  but  a  debt.  Is  that 
not  so?  We  are  living  in  a  world  where  the 
man  who  has  is  in  debt  to  the  man  who  has 
not.  Yes,  that  is  so,  else  the  bottom  is 
knocked  out  of  ethics.  Learning  is  in  debt 
to  ignorance,  wealth  to  poverty,  strength  to 
weakness.  Why  does  wisdom  exist  if  not  to 
lift  up  her  voice?  Inferiority  everywhere  is 
a  claim  on  advantage.  Giving  here  is  not  gen- 
erosity but  justice.  Failure  is  flagrant  de- 
fault.   Emerson  was  right  when  he  said: 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  COMFORT        55 

••  Pay  ransom  to  the  owner  ! 
Fill  the  cup  to  the  brim. 
Who  is  the  owner?    The  slave  is  owner 
And  always  was.     Pay  him." 

It  is  not  sufficient  for  the  scholar  to  linger 
in  the  shades  of  the  campus  and  feast  for- 
ever at  the  table  of  truth.  Having  received 
virtue  he  must  go  out  and  mingle  with  the 
multitude  and  lure  them  back  to  the  banquet. 
*'  Go  and  tell."  No  truth  is  ever  fully  claimed 
till  it  is  proclaimed.  When  Terence  uttered 
his  famous  sentence,  "  I  am  a  man  and  noth- 
ing that  concerns  man  is  foreign  to  me/'  the 
audience  went  wild  with  applause.  Dr. 
Behrends  once  said,  "  No  doctrine  can  survive 
unless  it  can  conquer."  If  there  is  only  one 
truth,  it  must  be  blazed  abroad.  Christianity 
must  sweep  the  field  or  leave  it.  There  is  no 
other  alternative.  **  Ye  are  the  light  of  the 
world,"  and  the  light  must  rule. 

And  it  is  an  interesting  fact,  that  with  the 
exception  of  Buddhism,  no  Oriental  religion 
has  ever  been  aggressive.  They  have  not  gone 
forth.  Their  genius  has  been  to  retreat 
rather,  to  meditate,  to  soliloquise,  to  be  ab- 
sorbed in  God.  The  great  apostle  of  the  Ve- 
danta  writes  these  words:  "So  long  as  the 
bee  is  outside  the  flower  it  buzzes,  but  when 
it  is  inside  the   flower  the   sweetness  over* 


56  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

powers  it  and  it  is  silent.  It  drinks  the  nectar 
in  quiet.  Men  of  learning,  you  too  are  mak- 
ing a  noise  in  the  world,  but  know  the  moment 
you  get  absorbed  in  God,  you  will  be  like  the 
bee,  inebriated  with  the  nectar  of  divine  love." 
This  is  Orientalism,  and  let  us  be  free  to  con- 
fess there  are  many  Oriental  Christians.  Be 
still  and  sip  the  honey.  Enjoy  the  luxury  of 
being  loved.  But  this  is  not  Christianity. 
Christianity  is  love,  and  love  is  offensive,  im- 
pulsive. Our  Master  says,  "  Go."  "  Go  out 
into  the  highways."  Taste  and  see,  then  go  and 
show.  Gather  the  honey,  then  scatter  it.  Go, 
go,  go.  How  far  shall  I  go?  Far  as  the 
curse  is  found.  Fertilise  the  field,  the  field  is 
the  world.  Go  wherever  God  is :  God  is  where 
need  is.  The  greatest  constructive  thinker  of 
all  time  said,  "  I  am  debtor."  Pass  it  on;  that 
is  the  purport  of  Paul's  apology.  "  I  am 
debtor,"  and  debt  knows  no  colour,  no  belt, 
no  zone,  no  latitude,  no  language.  To  give 
heathendom  our  dynamite,  our  gunpower,  our 
opium,  and  to  refuse  our  culture,  our  comfort, 
our  hope,  is  base,  ignoble,  unworthy.  It  is  the 
real  infidelity. 

*"  If  I  have  eaten  my  morsel  alone!' 

The  patriarch  spoke  in  scorn; 
What  would  He  think  of  the  Church,  were  He  shown 

Heathendom,  huge,  forlorn. 
Godless,  Christless,  with  soul  unfed, 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  COMFORT        57 

While  the  Church's  ailment  is  fulness  of  bread, 
Eating  her  morsel  alone  ? 

**  *  I  am  debtor  alike  to  the  Jew  and  the  Greek/ 

The  mighty  apostle  cried; 
Traversing  continents,  souls  to  seek, 

For  the  love  of  the  Crucified. 
Centuries,  centuries  since  have  sped; 
Millions  are  famishing,  we  have  bread, 

But  we  eat  our  morsel  alone. 

**  Ever  of  them  who  have  largest  dower 

Shall  Heaven  require  the  more. 
Ours  is  affluence,  knowledge,  power, 

Ocean  from  shore  to  shore; 
And  East  and  West  in  our  ears  have  said, 
'Give  us,  give  us  your  living  Bread.' 

Yet  we  eat  our  morsel  alone. 

"  *  Freely,  as  ye  have  received,  so  give,* 

He  bade,  Who  hath  given  us  all. 
How  shall  the  soul  in  us  longer  live, 

Deaf  to  their  starving  call, 
For  whom  the  blood  of  the  Lord  was  shed. 
And  His  body  broken  to  give  them  Bread, 

If  we  eat  our  morsel  alone  ?  " 

We  are  being  told  to-day  that  the  heathen 
world  does  not  want  our  religion,  but  the 
question  is  not  what  they  want,  but  what  they 
need.  It  used  to  be  said  that  the  slave  did 
not  want  liberty  and  was  full  happy  without 
it,  but  the  moment  he  tasted  freedom  he  found 
he  did  want  it.  It  avails  not  to  say  that  hu- 
manity can  worry  along  without  a  soul;  the 
point  at  issue  is  how  much  better  it  can  get 
on  with  a  soul.  And  this  is  the  obligation  that 
rests  on  us,  and  it  is  self -revealing.    For  noth- 


58  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

ing  tests  the  sterling  qualities  of  a  man  like 
his  bearing  toward  inferiors.  Mark  the  man 
who  is  supercilious  toward  his  brother;  judged 
by  every  noble  standard  he  is  a  little  man. 
Nothing  can  be  farther  from  the  Christian 
temper  or  the  mind  of  the  Master  than  this. 
Every  lamp  we  light  illumines  our  own. 
Carlyle  showed  himself  at  his  worst  when  he 
said,  "  I  never  thought  the  rights  of  negroes 
worth  discussing  anyway."  For  after  all, 
loving  the  unlovely  is  the  sure  sign  of  great- 
ness. The  world  asks,  "  What  is  the  good  in 
trying  to  save  races  who  are  dying  of  their 
vices  ?  "  Why  waste  precious  energy  on  Hot- 
tentots who  simply  have  the  human  form? 
Let  Robert  Morrison  answer :  "  Christianity 
must  vindicate  its  claim  by  doing  its  very  best 
work  for  its  very  worst  men."  The  man  who 
comes  into  life  at  the  vanishing  point  and  with 
the  smallest  revenue,  the  man  who  is  weighted 
down  with  the  debt  and  darkness  of  the  past 
— ^he  is  the  man  whose  need  is  greatest,  he  is 
the  man  whose  call  is  loudest.  Were  it  pos- 
sible for  the  good  kind  Father  to  be  partial 
at  all,  surely  it  would  be  to  this  unfortunate 
brother  that  he  would  bid  us  hasten  first. 
This  is  the  immediacy  of  our  message.  *'  Go 
and  tell  John."  Haste!  Away!  "Behold,! 
come  quickly." 


THE  COMFORT  OF  A  LIVELY 
HOPE 


THE  COMFORT  OF  A   LIVELY  HOPE 

"Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go?"— John  6:68. 

THAT  is  what  Peter  said.  Let  us 
make  it  personal.  To  whom  shall  I 
go?  "I  am  in  trouble,  in  distress; 
I  am  all  broken  up.  My  heart  is  bleeding, 
my  mind  is  in  a  maze,  my  brain  in  a  whirl. 
My  soul  is  lonely  and  empty.  I  have  a  dead 
child  in  my  home,  my  first,  my  only.  This 
morning  the  grim  reaper  crept  into  the  room, 
and  when  he  departed  the  crib  was  empty,  my 
darling  was  gone.  He  wrenched  the  precious 
little  thing  so  roughly,  so  cruelly,  so  heart- 
lessly. Oh,  God!  whither  shall  I  go?  I  feel, 
I  feel,  this  is  how  I  feel — I  feel  as  if  I  want 
to  go  too.  Life  has  nothing  left  any  more, 
not  for  me.  I  have  no  desire  for  anything, 
no  aim,  no  hope,  no  heart,  no  ambition.  I 
have  lost  all  grip.  I  want  to  go  too.  I  want 
to  die,  yes,  to  die.  I  am  almost  an  infidel. 
Yesterday  was  so  bright,  to-day  is  black  as 
the  ink  of  Inferno.  I  am  simply  crushed,  sick, 
sore,  wounded,  bleeding.  Can  you  help  me? 
To  whom  shall  I  go  ?  "  It  was  only  yesterday, 
61 


6^  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

that  she  spoke  these  words,  and  she  sobbed  all 
the  while,  like  a  babe  broken-hearted. 

How  many  a  poor  child  of  sorrow  has  cried 
thuswise  in  the  night!  How  many  have 
knocked  their  bleeding  knuckles  at  the  door 
of  this  temple  of  mystery!  How  many  have 
wrung  their  hands  and  their  hearts,  and  far 
on  into  the  night  kept  wringing  them,  until 
weary  with  weeping  and  watching  they  fell 
asleep!  Let  Ernst  Haeckel  guess  as  he  may, 
say  what  he  will,  I  want  some  one  on  whose 
beating  bosom  I  can  sob  out  my  sorrow,  to 
whom  I  can  tell  the  grief  that  is  choking  my 
throat,  and  to  whom  I  can  cling  "  when  the 
great  grinding,  groaning  world  is  staggering 
under  my  feet." 

Let  us  then  begin  here.  This  is  rock.  I 
cannot  build  my  house  in  the  sky.  I  cannot 
anchor  my  little  bark  to  the  fog.  Fogs  do  not 
hold  barks.  Something  substantial  is  needed. 
There  is  a  hunger  in  my  heart — a  hunger  for 
bread;  there  is  a  thirst  down  there — a  thirst 
for  water.  You  are  bound  to  rob  me  of 
Christ.  Be  it  so!  But  before  you  take  Him 
away,  may  I  ask  what  or  whom  are  you  go- 
ing to  leave  me  instead?  You  surely  will  not 
take  Him  away  and  leave  me  nothing.  That 
would  be  unfair,  ungracious,  unthoughtful,  in- 
considerate, unkind.     Who  then  shall  it  be? 


COMFORT  OF  A  LIVELY  HOPE      63 

What  shall  it  be?  Where  shall  I  go?  What  shall 
I  do?   To  whom  shall  I  listen?  Whom  trust? 

Some  one  says,  "  Do  not  go  anywhere;  just 
do  not  think  about  it;  beHeve  nothing  at  all; 
let  your  mind  lie  fallow;  be  an  agnostic."  Has 
it  ever  struck  you  what  an  untenable  stand 
that  is?  No  mind  can  lie  fallow,  none.  Not 
growing  wheat,  it  grows  weeds.  No  man  can 
go  nowhere.  He  must  go  somewhere.  There 
is  no  such  spot  in  the  dark  stretch  of  this  un- 
dulating ether  as  the  place  called  Nowhere. 
There  is  no  such  corner  on  the  mental  con- 
tinent. You  ask  your  little  boy,  *'  Johnnie, 
where  have  you  been?  "  Johnnie  says,  "  No- 
where, Papa."  But  Johnnie  was  somewhere. 
Stand  still  ?  Man  alive,  it  is  impossible.  There 
is  not  the  minutest  electron  in  the  whole  sweep 
of  the  Cosmos  standing  still.  Everything  is 
going,  going,  going  somewhere.  No  man  can 
stand  still.  No  man  can  go  nowhere.  No  man 
can  believe  nothing.  He  must  believe  some- 
thing. He  may  believe  that  matter  is  the  crea- 
tion of  mind  or  that  mind  is  the  creation  of 
matter.  It  is  a  belief  nevertheless.  The 
agnostic  has  his  confession  of  faith  just  as 
truly  as  the  bluest-stocking  Presbyterian  or  the 
hardest-shell  Baptist. 

Here  is  a  doubter,  who  says,  "  I  do  not 
know  whether  there  is  a  personal  God  or  not." 


64  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

Is  that  not  a  confession  ?  Why,  surely,  a  very 
frank  one.  Here  is  another  young  critic !  He 
says,  "  I  do  not  know  whether  God  made  man 
or  whether  man  made  God."  In  either  case 
it  is  a  creed,  young  friend.  You  had  better 
take  that  horn  of  the  dilemma  where  the  foot- 
ing is  firmest.  Still  a  third  says,  "  I  know 
not  whether  this  life  goes  on  after  death."  Be 
it  so !  That  is  an  article  of  belief,  is  it  not  ?  A 
creed  is  an  intellectual  opinion.  No  one  can 
pass  this  way  opinionless.  We  all  must  be- 
lieve something  about  these  great  eternal 
things.  To  believe  nothing  is  out  of  the  ques- 
tion. We  cannot  stand  still.  We  cannot  go 
nowhere.  Either  we  think  the  case  proven  or 
we  think  it  is  not.  We  must  all  go  somewhere. 
Some  years  ago  I  remember  reading  of  a 
mariner  and  his  bride  setting  sail  from  Atlan- 
tic City  for  the  coast  of  England.  They  ig- 
nored the  established  lines  of  travel  and  pro- 
posed to  cross  in  a  dory.  If  I  recall  correctly 
it  was  Sunday  when  they  started,  with  a  toss 
so  to  speak  of  bravado.  An  way  it  was  the 
last  heard  of  them.  What  happened  belongs 
to  the  sea  and  the  silence  and  the  sharks. 
Now  that  they  have  failed,  the  world  calls 
them  foolhardy.  Those  who  cheered  them 
from  the  Atlantic  pier  wonder  to-day  what 
became  of  them.     But  that  is  what  the  critic 


COMFORT  OF  A  LIVELY  HOPE      65 

is  doing.  He  is  asking  me  to  leave  the  old 
established  lines  of  travel.  He  is  asking  me 
to  leave  the  great  Cunarders  and  go  in  a 
dory.  Maybe  I  might  get  across;  I  might, 
but  to  say  the  least  it  is  risky.  I  prefer  the 
Baltic  or  the  Lusitania,  When  one  is  not  cer- 
tain of  his  parachute,  it  is  wiser  to  stick  to  the 
balloon.  What  then  does  the  critic  propose  to 
give  me?  "To  whom  shall  I  go?"  If 
Jesus  is  unreliable,  as  he  claims,  who  shall  it 
be?  That  surely  is  a  reasonable  demand.  He 
denies  me  the  Lusitania.  Be  it  so;  may  I  ask 
to  see  his  dory? 

Now  it  looks  to-day  as  if  there  were  only 
three  places  to  go,  as  if  there  were  only  three 
boats  to  take.  Time  was  when  there  were 
four  or  five,  but  several  have  sunk.  Three 
only  are  left,  and  indeed  the  charge  is  made 
that  two  of  these  are  leaky.  There  is  Ma- 
terialism, there  is  Orientalism,  and  there  is 
Christianity.  Let  us  spend  a  few  moments  ex- 
amining these  liners  and  endeavouring  to  as- 
certain which  of  them  is  most  seaworthy,  and 
let  us  confine  our  thinking  to  the  great  never- 
uninteresting  subject  of  immortality. 

MATERIALISM 

And  what  does  Materialism  say?  Well,  to 
begin  with,  Materialism  says  that  I  came  up 


66  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

from  the  lower  order.  "  We  have  all  come  up 
the  long  ladder  from  the  invertebrate  world." 
This  does  not  mean,  by  the  way,  that  man  has 
descended  from  the  monkey.  It  means,  as  Sir 
Oliver  Lodge  puts  it  in  his  catechism,  that 
monkey  and  man,  like  dog  and  jackal,  like 
horse  and  bear,  have  had  a  common  father. 
The  bird  did  not  develop  from  the  reptile,  but 
bird  and  reptile  are  related.  So  monkey  and 
man  are  related,  physically  related. 

If  this  were  all,  there  might  be  no  objection 
forthcoming.  Scripture  seems  to  say  nothing 
by  way  of  contradiction.  We  need  neither 
affirm  it  nor  deny  it.  Let  science  settle  this 
issue.  After  all  it  matters  but  exceedingly 
little  where  this  body  came  from.  We  know 
in  the  last  analysis  it  came  from  below.  The 
question  is,  "  What  about  this  spiritual  as- 
set of  ours?"  Whence  came  it?  I  have 
the  lion  in  me  and  the  tiger  and  the  fox  and 
the  porcupine,  but  I  have  also  the  Christ  in 
me.  I  find  the  eternal  within.  I  find  surg- 
ing through  my  veins  the  blood  of  the  Royal 
Family.  Somehow  I  feel  myself  related  to 
the  King.  God  does  not  insist  on  having 
precious  stones  to  make  mountains.  He  makes 
mountains  out  of  mud.  He  takes  a  handful 
of  loam  and  makes  a  lily.  He  takes  a  little 
black  charcoal  and  makes  therewith  a  diamond. 


COMFORT  OF  A  LIVELY  HOPE      67 

So  I  do  not  trouble  myself  about  the  link  that 
binds  me  to  the  dust.  There  is  a  link  at  the 
other  end  of  the  chain  that  is  more  interesting. 
Furthermore,  I  am  moving  that  way,  and  I 
have  made  such  phenomenal  progress  already, 
that  it  looks  as  if  there  must  be  a  marvellous 
future  in  store.  "  It  doth  not  yet  appear  what 
we  shall  be." 

But  here  is  where  we  part.  The  Material- 
ist says,  and  he  says  it  rather  aggravatingly, 
that  there  is  no  future  in  store.  When  a  man 
dies  he  is  dead,  dead  for  sure,  dead  as  the 
nails  in  his  casket.  There  is  no  God,  no  divine 
Christ,  no  inspired  revelation,  no  heaven,  no 
future  life,  no  spiritual  reality  whatever.  The 
gray  substance  of  the  brain  is  phosphorus. 
Thought  is  atomic  friction.  Life  is  nitrous 
oxide.  God  is  a  fable.  The  religious  experi- 
ence of  the  race  has  been  a  sentimental  seance. 
"  The  hope  of  the  world  a  lie,"  as  Tennyson 
phrased  it.  The  whole  Christian  fabric  rests 
on  a  piece  of  traditional  superstition.  We  are 
soon  to  witness  its  complete  and  crushing  col- 
lapse. 

Now  of  course  this  claim  is  conceivable,  but 
conceivable  or  not  one  thing  is  sure,  it  is  co- 
lossal. "  It  is  the  most  tremendous  indictment 
ever  levelled  against  human  history."  I  can 
imagine  an  indictment  being  brought  against 


68  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

a  jury  of  twelve  men;  I  can  conceive  an  indict- 
ment being  drawn  against  a  body  of  legisla- 
tors, but  as  Edmund  Burke  once  said,  **  I  know 
not  how  to  draw  up  the  indictment  of  a  na- 
tion." And  this  is  more  than  national,  this  is 
international;  more  than  international,  racial. 
This  is  not  the  indictment  of  men,  this  is  the 
indictment  of  man:  man  with  his  struggles, 
his  tears,  his  hopes,  his  triumphs.  For  mark 
you,  faith  in  the  future  life  is  not  the  challenge 
of  Christianity  alone;  it  is  the  intuitive  ra- 
tionale of  the  race.  Never  a  nation  so  rude  and 
artless  but  has  clung  to  it.  Some  of  them  have 
known  no  laws,  no  letters,  no  houses,  no  cloth- 
ing, nothing  but  cave  and  flint  and  leaf  and 
bow  and  arrow.  Some  have, been  incapable  of 
even  the  fine  science  of  clear  thinking,  but  all 
have  held  to  a  faith  in  the  fact  that  the  life 
of  the  Spirit  never  dies.  The  whole  heathen 
world  believed  it;  Greek  and  Roman  believed 
it;  the  Chaldean  believed  it;  the  Egyptian  be- 
lieved it;  the  Syrian  believed  it.  It  is  written 
on  the  very  heart  of  the  race.  In  the  words 
of  Theodore  Parker,  "  Immortality  is  what 
philosophers  call  an  ontological  fact.  It  be- 
longs to  the  being  of  man  just  as  the  eye  is 
a  physiological  fact  and  belongs  to  the  body 
of  man.  It  is  written  in  human  nature  so 
plainly  that  the  crudest  nations  have  not  failed 


COMFORT  OF  A  LIVELY  HOPE      69 

to  read  it,  written  just  as  form  is  written  on 
the  circle  or  length  on  the  line,"  or  may  I  add, 
as  extension  is  written  on  matter,  or  hardness 
on  hickory  or  wetness  on  water — in  a  word,  it 
is  ontological. 

How  incongruous  to  hear  critics  talk  slight- 
ingly sometimes  of  the  credulousness  of  the 
Christian.  The  credulousness  of  the  Christian 
is  no  doubt  great  but  it  is  as  nothing  to  the 
credulousness  of  the  critic.  The  difficulties  of 
belief  are  not  small;  I  would  not  belie  or  be- 
little them,  but  the  difficulties  of  unbelief  are 
mountainous.  It  is  a  hard  thing  to  accept  the 
Genesis  story  that  God  made  the  world;  but 
it  is  so  much  harder  to  accept  the  fable  of 
Frederic  Harrison,  that  the  world  made  God. 
"  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  Heaven 
and  the  Earth,"  but  if  it  had  read,  'Tn  the  be- 
ginning heaven  and  earth  created  themselves 
and  then  created  man,  and  then  went  on  to 
create  God  and  all  the  great  spiritual  hopes" — 
verily  that  would  have  been  a  tax  exorbitant 
on  faith.  The  difficulties  of  explaining  the 
world  without  God  are  so  much  greater  than 
the  difficulties  of  explaining  it  with  God  that 
most  people  prefer  to  work  out  the  problem 
in  the  easier  way.  That  man  should  live  after 
death  is  not  so  strange,  after  all,  as  that  he 
should  have  lived  before  death.     To  wake  up 


70  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

in  another  world  can  hardly  be  less  wonderful 
than  to  have  waked  up  in  this.  Time  and 
again  it  is  recorded  of  Jesus  that  He  marvelled 
at  their  unbelief.  To  Jesus  unbelief  was  a 
strange  and  marvellous  thing.  He  considered 
it  most  natural  that  men  should  believe  in 
prayer,  in  the  new  birth,  in  the  future  life,  in 
all  the  great  spiritual  verities  of  the  kingdom. 
No,  Materialism  does  not  cross  this  ocean.  It 
takes  us  part  way  and  dumps  us  in  the  deep. 
Materialism  is  an  ocean  liner  condemned  and 
bound  for  the  bottom. 

ORIENTALISM 

Some  to-day  have  a  wondrous  liking  for 
Orientalism  and  Hindu  philosophy.  But 
Hindu  philosophy  teaches  that  we  must  not 
wish  to  live  again.  Hindu  philosophy  does  not 
teach  us  to  love  life;  rather  does  it  discourse 
the  opposite :  it  teaches  that  the  ideal  is  to  hate 
life.  The  supreme  desire  of  the  disciples  of 
this  cult  is  to  kill  the  love  of  life  and  the  effort 
to  prolong  it,  and  to  pass  at  length  into  the 
sleep  of  absorption.  The  universe  is  one  great 
soul,  they  claim,  from  which  all  other  souls 
have  broken  away.  These  wander  about  in 
misery,  finding  bodies  as  they  may  and  hav- 
ing no  rest  until  they  return  to  the  Original 
Soul.    This  is  the  doctrine  of  re-incarnation. 


COMFORT  OF  A  LIVELY  HOPE      71 

There  are  millions  at  the  present  time  with 
whom  it  is,  in  some  phase  or  other,  a  religion; 
viz.:  that  life  is  bad,  full  of  sorrow,  full  of 
pain;  that  we  ought  not  wish  to  live  again,  and 
that,  only  when  we  have  reached  that  lofty 
state  in  which  we  can  truly  say  that  we  do  not 
wish  to  live  again,  have  we  won  the  victory. 
Instance  Buddhism.    Buddhism  is  the  high- 
est type  of  Orientalism,  approaching  nearer  to 
Christianity  than  any  other  heathen  concep- 
tion.    Without  doubt  there  are  many  lovely 
things  in  it,  but  what  of  comfort?     To  the 
Buddhist  the  world  is  a  great  hospital,  with 
an  all-devouring  fire  raging  through,  never  ex- 
tinguished, never  abating.    Nothing  seems  able 
to  quench  the  flames.     The  only  hope  is  in 
becoming    steeled    and     insensible    to    their 
ravages.      Reduce    existence    to    a    vanishing 
point.    "  Kill  all  craving,"  says  Buddha.    Kill 
the  craving  for  success,  the  craving  of  the  ap- 
petites, the  craving  of  the  passions,  the  crav- 
ing of  the  affections.     Get  rid  of  the  love  of 
life  here  and  hereafter,  if  you  would  be  happy. 
Through  and  through  it  is  a  negative  philoso- 
phy; its  keynote  being  death,  not  life.     Ex- 
istence is  a  curse  to  be  evaded,  not,  as  Jesus 
proclaimed,  a  blessedness  that  we  are  to  strive 
to  make  eternal;  its  peace  is  the  peace  of  ex- 
tinction, the  peace  of  the  Christian  contrari- 


72  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

wise  being  the  peace  of  satisfaction.  It  teaches 
man  seeking  God;  but  never  yet  has  it  arisen 
to  the  loftier  level  of  God  seeking  man.  It 
proclaims  war  against  suffering  not  sin.  Work 
out  your  own  salvation  with  fear  and  trem- 
bling. How?  By  self-obliteration  and  self- 
erasement.  This  is  its  controlling  note !  The 
heaven  thereof  is  Nirvana,  and  Nirvana 
means  selflessness,  unconsciousness,  nothing- 
ness. The  soul  that  is  purified  perfectly  be- 
fore death  enjoys  Nirvana  already,  and  after 
dissolution  will  experience  no  further  birth. 
Surely  we  are  wandering  not  far  afield  in 
charging  that  this  is  a  comfortless  appeal,  and 
disheartening;  leaving  as  it  does  no  place  for 
prayer,  no  hope  for  love,  no  song  for  the  ceme- 
tery. The  best  that  can  be  said  for  it  is  that 
it  is  a  message  of  pity,  and  pity  is  an  easily- 
stirred,  short-lived  emotion. 

•'  Take  me  and  lull  me  into  perfect  sleep; 

Down,  down,  far  hidden  in  thy  duskiest  cave; 
While  all  the  clamorous  years  above  me  sweep 

Unheard,  or  like  the  voice  of  seas  that  rave 
On  far-off  coasts,  but  murm'ring  o'er  my  trance 
A  dim  vast  monotone,  that  shall  enhance 

The  restful  rapture  of  the  inviolate  grave." 

Many  there  be  to-day  who  speak  wistfully  of 
melting  at  death  into  the  infinite  azure.  Not 
such  our  fond  mother  who  lost  her  babe  yester 
morn.     She  hungered  to  clasp  her  darling  and 


COMFORT  OF  A  LIVELY  HOPE      73 

cuddle  her  to  her  breast.  She  thirsted  to  kiss 
those  little  pink  cheeks.  Her  greed  for  the 
child  was  voracious. 

•'  Communion  in  spirit :  forgive  me; 
But  I  who  am  earthly  and  weak 
Would  give  all  my  income  from  dreamland 
For  a  touch  of  her  hand  on  my  cheek." 

This  solar  system  of  ours  rolls  and  tosses 
through  a  luminiferous  medium  we  call  the 
ether;  Ah,  but  richer,  rarer  far,  is  that  other 
medium  in  which  the  heart  moves.  Love  is  it. 
Love  glorifies  the  world.  Love  is  the  light  and 
the  life  and  the  hope  and  the  glory  of  the 
world.  And  Buddhism  is  the  burial  of  love. 
"  It  satisfies  my  longings."  Nay,  nay,  this  is 
just  the  trouble.  Nothing  satisfies  my  longings 
but  love,  eternal  love,  immortal  love.  Naught 
is  there  in  all  this  universe  to  account  for 
mother-love,  unless,  at  the  heart  of  it,  there 
is  the  Infinite  Mother  Love.  Extermination  is 
poor,  dry  chaff,  with  which  to  feed  the  heart 
hungering  for  love.  Death  as  an  ultimate  is 
life's  supreme  sarcasm.  Dreamless  repose  is 
the  rediictio  ad  absurdum  of  all  faith  in  a 
moral  Governor. 

CHRISTIANITY 

The  Bible  is  an  historical  book.    It  is  a  nar- 
rative of  the  progress  of  God's  kingdom  on 


74  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

the  earth.  It  is  a  biography  of  Jesus  and  is 
thus  a  record  of  facts,  dates,  doings,  sayings. 
To-day  there  is  a  leaning  to  get  away  from  the 
literal  and  substantial.  Just  as  the  chemist 
volatilises  metal,  so  the  religious  teacher  some- 
times volatilises  his  faith  and  makes  it  unreal. 
Buddhism  is  volatilised  religion.  Thomas  De 
Quincey  said  of  Coleridge,  "  He  wants  better 
bread  than  can  be  made  with  wheat."  Some 
there  are  thus-minded  in  spiritual  things;  they 
want  better  bread  than  can  be  made  with 
wheat.  The  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  I  take 
it  is  the  best  bread  that  can  be  made  with 
wheat.  It  is  as  strong  as  evidence  can  make 
it.  It  is  sensible,  palpable,  tangible.  I  do  not 
wish  to  *'  melt  into  the  infinite  azure  or  to  be 
transfused  into  a  rainbow,"  or  to  slip  into 
dreamless,  insensate  repose.  I  prefer  to  keep 
firm  hold  of  the  definite.  I  prefer  the  testi- 
mony of  Mary  and  Martha  and  Luke  and  John 
and  Mark  and  Cephas  and  Paul.  I  accept  the 
history  as  ultimate.  The  greatest  thing  in  this 
world  is  man,  the  greatest  man  is  Jesus,  the 
greatest  fact  is  His  resurrection;  it  is  the  climax 
of  His  magnificent  life;  it  is  the  credential  of 
His  colossal  claims;  it  is  the  basal  block  of  the 
whole  Christian  superstructure,  for  ttie  Church 
is  not  built  on  the  birth  of  Jesus,  not  on  His 
life,  not  on  His  teaching,  not  on  His  death,  but 


COMFORT  OF  A  LIVELY  HOPE       75 

on  His  glorious  resurrection.  Napoleon  knew 
that  if  he  could  capture  Houguemont,  the 
walled  farmhouse  at. Waterloo,  he  could  de- 
feat Wellington,  and  it  is  full  to  this  day  of 
the  bullet-holes  of  that  conflict.  Unbelief  has 
made  the  resurrection  the  target  of  its  attack, 
knowing  that  Christianity  stands  or  falls  by 
that  vantage  ground. 

It  is  becoming  popular  to-day  again  to 
champion  the  old  visionary  hypothesis.  We 
are  being  told  that  we  generally  see  what  we 
are  expecting  to  see.  People  see  what  they  are 
looking  for:  the  disciples  were  looking  for 
Jesus;  therefore  they  saw  Him.  But  the  minor 
premise  is  contrary  to  the  facts.  They  were 
not  looking  for  Him.  They  were  startled 
when  they  saw  Him.  Their  hearts  were 
crushed,  their  hopes  broken.  The  spices  they 
are  carrying  are  for  a  dead  not  a  living  man. 
"  Who  will  roll  away  the  stone,"  they  are  say- 
ing, "that  we  may  get  at  the  body  for  its 
burial  ? "  Why,  when  Mary  saw  Him  she 
thought  it  was  the  gardener.  Once  do  I  well 
remember  when  I  felt  my  own  faith  slipping 
away  from  me.  I  had  been  reading  Diderot 
and  Condorcet;  Renan  too,  especially  his 
"  History  of  the  Origin  of  Christianity,"  and 
already  he  had  charmed  me.  I  was  under  his 
empire  completely.       When  I  came  to  that 


76  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

wonderful  passage  in  his  "  Life  of  Jesus  "  in 
which  he  makes  the  excitement  of  an  hysteri- 
cal woman  and  the  opening  and  shutting  of  a 
door  by  the  breath  of  an  Eastern  breeze, 
the  causes  of  the  faith  which  has  produced 
Christendom,  I  felt  as  though  the  light  of  the 
world  had  gone  out.  And  in  my  darkness  and 
doubt,  I  had  to  preach.  Oh!  the  pain  of  it, 
the  pang,  the  strain,  the  torture !  In  this  state 
of  wretchedness  and  woe,  I  went  to  a  dear 
old  minister  in  the  next  village,  for  advice. 
He  said  to  me,  "  My  boy,  cheer  up,  all  will 
be  well  yet;  I  have  been  there  too.  Let  me 
tell  you  what  to  do.  Take  your  four  Gospels 
and  read  them.  Read  them  in  the  original. 
You  are  going  off  on  your  vacation.  Leave 
Renan  at  home.  Just  take  one  book  along  with 
you — your  Westcott  and  Hort.  Do  not  read 
anything  else.  Saturate  your  mind  with  the 
story  of  the  resurrection.  Let  it  get  into  your 
bones.  Leave  it  to  make  its  own  marks.  Pray 
for  light.  Then  follow  the  gleam."  I  did  as 
he  told  me,  and  never  have  I  forgotten  the 
dear  old  saint,  so  patient,  so  sympathetic,  so 
wise,  since  gone  to  his  rest. 

Often  have  I  looked  out  of  my  study  win- 
dows in  the  early  morning  and  greeted  these 
grand  San  Gabriel  Mountains.  Then  noon  be- 
came hot  and  they  were  blurred.     But  by  the 


COMFORT  OF  A  LIVELY  HOPE      77 

cool  of  the  evening  the  haze  had  vanished  and 
I  could  see  clearly  the  giant  ranges  again.  So 
when  I  was  a  child  heaven  was  near,  clear,  dear. 
Then  the  fog  fell  thick  and  I  lost  my  way,  but 
not  for  long.  I  see  the  glorious  vision  once  more. 
To-day,  blessed  be  His  name.  Mount  Zion 
looms  larger  and  clearer  and  nearer  than  ever. 
I  know  He  rose  because  I  see.  I  see  Him. 
He  has  come  into  this  poor  heart  of  mine,  a 
living  reality,  and  if  He  did  not  rise  He  could 
not  have  done  that.  The  New  Testament  is 
great,  but  how  small  it  is  by  the  side  of  the 
living  Christ.  I  can  admire  the  genius  of 
Dante  in  his  matchless  epic  of  the  soul,  but 
I  cannot  share  the  great  immortal  dreamer's 
life.  He  is  simply  a  dead  thinker.  But  Jesus 
is  a  living  Lord.  *'  I  am  the  first  and  the  last 
and  the  Living  One;  and  I  was  dead  and  be- 
hold I  am  alive  forever  more  and  have  the 
keys  of  death  and  of  Hades."  Who  is  the  mas- 
ter of  the  instrument?  It  is  he,  is  it  not,  who 
liberates  the  music?  The  chief  of  all  instru- 
ments is  the  human  soul;  our  consciousness 
is  the  keyboard.  Jesus  sits  at  the  manual  and 
out  flow  waves  of  harmony.  He  calls  forth 
the  best.  He  pulls  out  the  deep  eternal  stops. 
He  sounds  the  great  immortal  chords.  Renan 
calls  out  what  is  critical  in  me;  Jesus  summons 
what  is  triumphant  and  divine. 


78  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

In  this  organ  of  ours  half  the  pipes  are  dum- 
mies. They  are  real  but  they  are  not  con- 
nected with  the  mechanism  within.  They 
make  no  music.  They  are  ornamental.  And 
there  are  many  doctrines  in  our  creed  which 
give  order  and  symmetry  and  roundness  to  that 
creed  but  which  are  not  vital,  having  no  prac- 
tical bearing  upon  life.  Not  such,  however,  is 
the  resurrection.  It  is  the  large  deep  flue  pipe 
in  the  Christian  register.  Paul  says,  ''  That 
we  may  know  Him  and  the  power  of  His 
resurrection."  Too  good,  you  say,  to  be  true. 
Nothing,  friend,  is  too  good  to  be  true.  Just 
as  the  Greek  Hermes  had  winged  feet,  so  man 
has  this  supreme  lofty  distinction.  He  has  pos- 
sible flight,  capacity  for  the  highest,  infinite 
outlook.  The  best  must  be  true.  When  John 
Wesley  first  came  to  this  country  his  vessel 
encountered  a  violent  storm.  All  hope  was 
abandoned.  In  the  crisis  it  was  noted  that  one 
thing  characterised  all — all  were  on  their  knees 
in  prayer.  The  scene  is  typical  of  life.  In  the 
world's  rough  weather,  to  whom  can  w^e  go 
but  to  the  strong  Son  of  God?  He  alone  has 
power  to  still  the  waves.  He  alone  has  power 
to  calm  and  comfort  the  heart. 


GOOD  HEALTH  AND  COMFORT 


GOOD   HEALTH   AND   COMFORT 

*'  I  am  come  that  they  might  have  life  and  that  they 
might  have  it  more  abundantly." — John  lo  :  lo. 

IN  that  interesting  reply  of  Sir  Oliver 
Lodge's  to  Ernst  Haeckel,  "  Life  and 
Matter,"  there  is  a  chapter  called  "  Reli- 
gion and  Philosophy,"  and  in  that  chapter  I  re- 
member an  illustration  that  impressed  me. 
There  is  an  old  proverb,  he  says,  which  goes 
something  like  this :  "  Whatever  is  true  of  the 
whole  is  true  of  every  part."  If  a  bucket  of 
water  is  salty,  then  every  atom  of  it  is  salty. 
If  a  chain  of  steel  links  is  perfect,  then  every 
individual  link  of  which  the  chain  is  composed 
is  perfect.  For  whatever  is  true  of  the  whole 
is  true  of  the  part.  When  the  physician  makes 
a  blood  examination  he  does  not  draw  off  a  gal- 
lon or  a  quart.  Two  or  three  drops  from  a 
pin-prick  will  suffice.  He  knows  that  as  one 
drop  is,  so  are  all. 

The  old  proverb,  says  Sir  Oliver,  is  a  fallacy. 
A  property  can  be  possessed  by  a  bundle  of 
atoms  which  the  individual  atom  does  not  pos- 
sess. For  instance,  the  earth  has  an  atmos- 
phere, the  moon  has  not.  Why?  Because 
the  moon  is  not  large  enough.  If  the  moon 
were  only  three  times  as  large,  say,  it  would 
81 


82  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

have  an  atmosphere;  that  being  all  that  is 
needed.  In  order  to  attract  and  hold  to  itself 
an  atmosphere  a  body  must  be  massive ;  this  is 
a  point  of  importance  because  it  means  the  ex- 
istence of  life  on  the  surface  of  any  planet. 
So,  by  piling  atoms  and  rocks  and  stones  to- 
gether into  a  mighty  mass,  there  comes  by  and 
Dy  a  critical  juncture  when  the  mass  is  suffi- 
ciently aggressive  to  control  the  roving  gases 
floating  round  in  space;  it  gets  influential 
enough  to  gravitate  to  itself  an  atmosphere, 
and  that  means  of  course  living  things  and  all 
manner  of  wonderful  phenomena. 

I  wonder  if  it  is  not  true  oftentimes  that 
many  of  us  Christians  are  not  aggressive 
enough  to  create  an  atmosphere,  either  one  of 
our  own  or  by  gravitation.  We  are  not  large 
enough  it  may  be;  anyway  we  are  not  rich  and 
full  enough.  We  are  so  pitifully  small  and 
poor.  We  are  such  weak,  minimum,  negative, 
anaemic  creatures.  We  are  not  sun-Christians 
rejoicing  as  a  strong  man  to  run  a  race  and 
glorying  in  his  brilliant  virtue;  we  are  moon- 
Christians,  faint,  barren,  lifeless,  and  shining 
with  a  borrowed  light.  There  ought  not  to  be 
simply  a  step  between  us  and  death.  The  ful- 
ness of  life  should  be  ours,  the  surplus  of 
strength  should  be  ours.  Sir  Andrew  Clarke 
has  recently  been  telling  us  that  it  is  possible 


GOOD  HEALTH  AND  COMFORT     83 

to  live  with  kidney  tissues  of  three  ounces,  but 
that  Nature  has  given  us  seven  ounces  more 
as  a  reserve  fund.  One  can  worry  along  on 
three  ounces,  but  he  cannot  live  the  life  he 
ought  to  live;  he  cannot  live  a  happy  life  or  a 
full  Hfe;  he  cannot  live  the  life  of  freedom  or 
joy  or  peace  or  satisfaction  or  victory.  It  is 
a  more  or  less  invalid  life  he  lives,  a  sort  of 
uphill  tug  all  the  way.  He  is  like  a  man  in 
debt.  Creditors  are  crowding  him  on  every 
side. 

•*  Dear  Lord,  and  shall  we  ever  live 
At  this  poor  dying  rate  ? 

Our  love  so  faint,  so  cold  to  Thee  ! 

And  Thine  to  us  so  great." 

Sometimes,  in  this  Southern  land,  one  meets 
a  poor  fellow  whom  some  Eastern  physicians 
are  cruel  enough  to  send  out  here  to  die.  Full 
oft  they  know  he  will  not  live  when  they  send 
him,  and,  indeed,  I  have  known  cases  in  which 
they  were  sent  to  be  got  rid  of.  To  be  sure  it 
takes  but  little  persuasion.  A  drowning  man 
will  clutch  at  a  straw.  Many  an  afternoon 
have  I  met  this  lonely  soul  trudging  along  the 
avenue,  coughing  his  very  life  out  at  every 
step,  and  the  sight  always  sends  a  pallor  of  pity 
to  the  face.  Quite  recently  it  was  my  duty  to 
call  on  one  of  these  unfortunates.  He  had 
been  gradually  coming  down  the  ladder,  from 


84  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

the  brisk  walk  to  the  slow  step,  from  the  slow 
step  to  a  ride  in  the  carriage,  from  a  ride  in 
the  carriage  to  sitting  on  the  porch,  from  sit- 
ting on  the  porch  to  just  getting  up  an  hour 
or  two  each  day  and  sitting  in  the  bedroom. 
When  I  saw  him  he  was  on  this  lowest  rung. 
Reclining  on  his  couch  pillowed  up  and  strug- 
gling for  air,  he  exclaimed,  *'  Oh,  Reverend, 
what  would  I  not  give  for  your  exuberance;  it 
almost  provokes  me." 

This  is  the  life  of  the  tubercular  victim,  and 
a  sad  life  it  surely  is.  There  is  sadness  in  a 
short  breath  and  a  hacking  cough.  He  is  on 
the  decline,  we  say.  We  know  full  well  that 
God  does  not  want  His  children  to  live  a  life 
such  as  this.  He  wants  us  to  live  a  full  life, 
a  free  life,  an  overflowing  life,  a  life  bubbling 
over.  "  My  cup  runneth  over,"  the  Psalmist 
says.  We  should  be  surcharged  with  vitality. 
We  should  feel  it  leaping  through  us — tumultu- 
ously.  The  word  here  used  for  abounding  is 
the  same  that  is  used  when  the  disciples  took 
up  twelve  baskets  full,  twelve  baskets  *""  over 
and  above "  what  was  necessary  to  feed  the 
multitude.  Our  Christian  life  should  be 
'"  over  and  above '';  it  should  abound  like  the 
ocean.  The  trouble  with  us  is  that  we  do  not 
abound.  We  are  not  fountains ;  we  are  wells. 
We  have  to  be  pumped.    There  is  a  drain  and 


GOOD  HEALTH  AND  COMFORT     85 

a  strain  when  there  should  be  a  volume,  a 
force,  an  overflow.  "  He  that  believeth  on 
Me,  as  the  Scripture  hath  said,  from  within 
him  shall  flow  rivers  of  living  water."  The 
horn  of  the  old  Norse  God  could  not  be  emptied 
because  one  end  rested  in  the  sea.  Whoever 
tried  to  empty  the  siphon  had  to  drain  the 
ocean.  This  is  the  Christian's  exhaustless  re- 
serve. "  I  am  come  that  they  might  have  life 
and  that  they  might  have  it  more  abundantly.'' 
Now  these  are  the  Saviour's  own  words. 
"  I  came,"  literally,  "  that  they  may  have  life 
and  that  they  may  have  abundance."  Abun- 
dance! the  action  of  waves!  The  word  is  a 
familiar  one  in  Scripture.  We  read  of  abun- 
dant grace,  abundant  mercy,  abundant  peace, 
abundant  joy,  an  abundant  entrance.  How 
different  Christianity  from  Buddhism!  Bud- 
dha's teaching  being  to  kill  the  love  of  life! 
"  Get  rid  of  the  love  of  Hfe,"  said  Buddha,  "  if 
you  would  be  happy."  Jesus  came  to  give  us 
life,  not  Nirvana.  "  I  give  unto  them  eternal 
life."  "  The  water  that  I  shall  give  him  shall 
be  in  him  a  well  of  water."  He  is  the  life- 
giver.  That  is  the  supreme  glory  of  Jesus. 
Of  course  He  is  more,  but  this  is  His  command- 
ing claim.  He  is  our  teacher,  but  there  are 
other  teachers.  A  teacher  gives  knowledge; 
Jesus  gives  life.     He  is  our  pattern,  but  there 


86  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

are  other  patterns.  A  pattern  gives  an  exam- 
ple; Jesus  gives  life.  He  is  the  good  Shep- 
herd, but  every  pastor  should  be  a  good  shep- 
herd. A  shepherd  gives  oversight ;  Jesus  gives 
life.  Here  is  one  name  which  He  shares  with 
no  other.  He  is  the  life-giver.  No  other 
guide  or  teacher  can  say  that.  He  breathes 
His  life  into  us.  Theologians  talk  of  the  evi- 
dences of  Christianity;  this  is  the  supreme  evi- 
dence, inspiration.  Christ  gives  us  His  own 
life.  By  means  of  that  channel  which  we  call 
faith.  He,  in  His  divine  humanity,  imparts  to 
His  followers  His  very  life. 

Now,  how  does  He  do  it?  How  does  He 
give  us  this  life?  Let  us  think  of  that  more 
particularly  this  morning,  and  let  us  approach 
our  field  of  inquiry  along  three  lines — 

(i)   Christ  for  us; 

(2)  Christ  with  us; 

(3)  Christ  in  us. 

And  first  of  all  He  did  something  for  us.  "  He 
died  for  our  sins."  "  For  our  sins !  "  There 
are  volumes  of  theology  packed  into  that  little 
preposition.  "  Verily,  verily  I  say  unto  you 
I  am  the  door  of  the  sheep;  by  Me  if  any  man 
enter  in  he  shall  be  saved."  "  By  Me,"  note. 
In  the  eleventh  verse  we  read,  "  I  am  the  good 
Shepherd;  the  good  Shepherd  lays  down  His 
life  for  the  sheep."     And  in  verse  fourteen 


GOOD  HEALTH  AND  COMFORT     87 

that  thought  is  repeated,  "  I  am  the  good  Shep- 
herd and  I  lay  down  My  life  for  the  sheep." 
The  apostles  drafted  no  theory  of  the  Atone- 
ment. It  was  the  fact  they  insisted  on.  Let 
us  do  likewise ;  let  us  simply  insist  on  the  fact. 
I  know  He  died  for  me.  He  died  that  I  might 
live.  He  lost  His  life  that  I  might  find  mine. 
He,  the  good  Shepherd,  gave  His  life  for  the 
sheep.  For,  after  all,  we  are  saved,  not  by 
our  theory  of  the  Atonement,  but  by  the  Atone- 
ment. The  old  divine  said,  "  Sometimes  I 
have  one  theory  and  sometimes  another  and 
sometimes  I  have  no  theory  at  all,  but  that  does 
not  cancel  its  virtue,  not  any  more  than  having 
no  theory  of  heat  prevents  the  fire  from  warm- 
ing my  fingers." 

Of  course  it  will  at  once  be  observed  that 
there  is  a  wide  difference  between  a  fact  and 
a  philosophy  of  that  fact.  By  a  fact  we  mean 
something  that  happened  in  the  path  of  history. 
A  fact  is  a  fact  for  ever  and  ever.  It  is  a  fact 
that  Jesus  was  born  in  Bethlehem  some  nineteen 
hundred  years  ago ;  there  is  but  one  opinion  on 
that;  that  is  a  fact,  always  will  be  a  fact;  but 
the  philosophy  of  that  fact  has  given  rise  to 
many  theories.  John  Wesley  preached  a  great 
sermon  once  on  earthquakes.  As  an  illustra- 
tion of  God's  providence  it  is  most  excellent, 
but  as  a  rationale  of  earthquakes  it  is  worth- 


88  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

less.  That  Christ  died  for  our  sins  is  a  fact 
admitted,  I  believe,  by  every  denomination  of 
historic  Christianity,  but  when  the  Calvinist 
puts  his  version  on  it,  and  the  Arminian  his, 
and  the  Unitarian  his,  and  the  MoraHst  his, 
then  you  have  four  explanations  of  the  one 
fact.  Truth  never  divides  people;  it  is  the 
philosophy  of  truth  that  divides  them.  And 
when  we  remember  that  theology  is  simply  a 
philosophy  of  God  and  of  God's  workings  we 
should  not  become  hysterical  if  it  changes 
colour  sometimes.  In  the  nature  of  things  our 
theologies  cannot  be  infallible  because  we  are 
not  infallible.  We  know  more  of  God  to-day 
than  our  fathers  did;  our  children  will  know 
more  than  we  do.  Charles  Hodge  spent  fifty 
years  trying  to  fathom  the  depths  of  the  Atone- 
ment, but  he  was  saved  in  exactly  the  same  way 
as  the  little  girl,  whom  it  was  my  privilege  to 
welcome  into  the  Church  last  winter,  and,  who, 
when  I  asked  her  if  Jesus  had  forgiven  her  her 
sins,  said  "Yes."  "How  do  you  know?"  I 
continued.  "  Because  I  love  Him,"  she  made 
answer.  "  And  why  do  you  love  Him  ? " 
"  Because  He  loves  me."  That  was  decisive. 
Love  is  the  best  theory  of  the  Atonement. 
"  God  commendeth  His  love  toward  us  in  that 
while  we  were  yet  sinners  Christ  died  for  us." 
I  know  that  the  Atonement  fits  my  case.    I 


GOOD  HEALTH  AND  COMFORT     89 

know  it  fits  my  conscience.  My  conscience 
answers  to  it.  I  know  it  fits  my  need.  I  know 
that  the  guilt  of  my  sin  needs  in  some  way  to 
be  compensated  for.  Christ  says,  you  take 
My  life  and  I  will  take  your  sin.  A  little  girl 
in  our  Sunday  School  was  learning  the  cate- 
chism. She  was  wrestling  with  the  answer  to 
that  question  "  What  is  sin  ?  "  "  Sin  is  any 
want  of  conformity  unto  or  transgression  of 
the  law  of  God."  She  said  to  her  mother, 
"  Oh,  Mamma,  I  wish  they  had  a  catechism 
without  any  God  and  without  any  conformity.'' 
Some  people  want  a  religion  of  that  kind.  They 
want  a  religion  without  any  God  and  without 
any  conformity.  But  not  such  is  our  faith. 
The  fundamental  fact  in  Christianity  is  a  Per- 
sonal God,  and  the  fundamental  law  is  con- 
formity to  His  will.  God  offers  us  His  own 
life,  but  upon  His  own  terms.  He  did  some- 
thing for  us.  "  He  bare  our  sins  in  His  own 
body  on  the  tree."  "  There  is  life  for  a  look." 
"  For  if  when  we  were  enemies  we  were  recon- 
ciled to  God  through  the  death  of  His  Son, 
much  more  being  reconciled  shall  we  be  saved 
by  His  life." 

(2)   Christ  with  us. 

You  will  recall  His  own  words.  He  was 
going  away  and  He  says,  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you 
always,  all  the  days,  even  unto  the  consumma- 


90  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

tion  of  the  age/*  And  it  is  true,  literally  true. 
Just  as  truly  as  Christ  was  with  Peter  and 
James  and  John,  just  as  truly  can  I  have  Him 
with  me.  When  He  said  to  His  disciples,  "  Lo,  I 
am  with  you  always,"  He  meant  it,  in  the  warm 
and  welcome  fulness  of  the  gracious  phrase. 

So,  let  us  think  of  this  wonderful  truth,  the 
presence  of  Jesus  ever  abiding  with  us.  The 
promise  to  Moses  was,  "  My  presence  shall  go 
with  thee  and  I  will  give  thee  rest."  The 
presence  of  God  with  Israel  was  a  reality ;  His 
presence  with  us  may  be  a  reality.  And  this 
is  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  work  of 
the  Spirit  is  to  bring  us  into  the  presence  of 
Jesus,  to  reveal  Jesus,  to  make  Him  a  living 
reality  to  us.  When  we  are  completely  under 
the  government  of  the  Spirit  we  see  no  man 
save  Jesus  only.  While  Jesus  was  on  earth 
His  spirituality  was  too  much  under  the  do- 
minion of  the  flesh.  It  was  necessary  for  Him 
to  go  away  and  for  the  Spirit  to  come.  "  These 
things  have  I  spoken  unto  you  while  yet  abid- 
ing with  you.  But  the  Comforter,  even  the 
Holy  Spirit,  He  shall  teach  you  all  things  and 
bring  to  your  remembrance  all  that  I  said  unto 
you.  And  I  will  pray  the  Father  and  He  shall 
give  you  another  Comforter  that  He  may  be 
with  you  forever."  It  will  thus  be  seen  that 
the  Holy  Spirit  came,  not  to  die  for  us,  but  to 


GOOD  HEALTH  AND  COMFORT     91 

live  with  us  and  to  make  God's  presence  mani- 
fest to  us.  He  came  down  from  heaven  on 
that  immortal  morning  to  take  His  abode  on 
earth  just  as  truly  as  our  blessed  Lord  when  He 
was  born  in  Bethlehem,  and  He  is  with  us  now 
and  will  be  until  the  Master  comes  again,  guid- 
ing, teaching,  comforting,  energising,  strength- 
ening. 

Now,  this  is  how  to  have  the  abundant  life. 
It  is  only  by  fellowship  with  God  that  the  soul 
can  be  made  strong.  Just  as  the  lungs  need 
air,  the  heart  needs  Him.  The  way  to  get  a 
deeper,  fuller  life  is  to  practise  His  presence. 
The  presence  of  Jesus  means  victory  over  every 
sin;  the  presence  of  Jesus  means  strength  for 
every  duty;  the  presence  of  Jesus  means 
triumph  in  every  trouble. 

It  is  the  old  story  of  environment.  Clima- 
tology to-day  is  preaching  the  open  air  cure 
with  joyful  and  excellent  effect.  The  con- 
sumptive, instead  of  being  dieted  on  drugs,  is 
dieted  on  fresh  eggs,  fresh  milk,  fresh  air,  and 
gets  well  under  the  hygiene.  We  are  suffering 
to-day  from  a  dearth  of  oxygen.  The  great 
majority  live  congested  in  cities.  Never  a  mo- 
ment but  breathing  goes  on.  And  what  are 
we  breathing?  Ozone  or  poison?  Recently 
it  was  my  privilege  to  make  a  tour  of  some  of 
those  tenement  shacks  in  New  York  City.     I 


92  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

saw  mothers,  dirty  and  unkempt,  living  in 
places  in  which  I  did  not  think  it  possible  for 
a  human  creature  to  long  survive.  I  saw 
whole  families  living  in  cellars.  I  saw  children 
starved  and  peaked  and  wizen-faced,  rolling  in 
grime  and  filth.  And  think  you  the  good 
Father  above  wishes  for  His  children  an  exist- 
ence such  as  that?  Nay,  nay,  it  cannot  be. 
He  would  that  every  child  of  His  be  strong, 
hearty,  rugged;  and  of  all  the  helps  by  which 
we  struggle  on  to  ruggedness  is  there  anything 
like  fellowship  with  the  blessed  Christ  ?  Some 
people  there  are  in  whose  presence  you  cannot 
be  untrue,  some  there  are  in  whose  nearness 
falsehood  dies.  If  it  purifies  the  conversation 
to  have  a  pure  woman  for  a  friend,  what  must 
it  be  to  live  with  Him  who  said,  ''  Blessed  are 
the  heart-pure?  " 

Let  us  cultivate  it :  let  us  cultivate  the  prac- 
tice of  His  presence.  Am  I  asked  how?  How 
do  we  practise  anything  ?  How  do  we  practise 
polo-playing?  Surely,  by  playing  polo.  How 
do  we  practise  golf?  By  playing  golf.  How 
does  the  child  learn  to  walk?  By  walking. 
How  do  you  develop  any  faculty?  By  using 
it.  How  can  I  practise  the  presence  of  God? 
By  getting  my  heart  to  realise  that  God  is 
present.  "  Take  time  each  day,"  says  Andrew 
Murray,  "  till  you  feel  that  God  is  very  near." 


GOOD  HEALTH  AND  COMFORT     93 

"  Take  time  to  be  holy,"  the  old  hymn  says.  I 
am  holding  conversation  with  a  friend.  Yes, 
and  the  God  of  heaven  is  the  third  person  in 
the  interview.  I  am  preaching  the  gospel  of 
the  Kingdom.  Aye,  and  the  Master  Himself  is 
listening  to  the  message.  I  am  standing  front- 
ing some  great  advancing  sorrow.  Yes,  and  the 
Great  Companion  is  by  my  side,  holding  my 
hand.  "  Yea,  though  I  walk  through  the  valley 
of  the  shadow  of  death,  Thou  art  with  me." 

It  was  only  a  little  while  ago  that  a  woman 
passed  away  in  our  city  who  almost  had  a 
national  reputation.  She  was  a  daughter  of 
Mount  Holyoke,  a  pupil  of  Mary  Lyon,  and 
for  three  and  thirty  years  she  had  been  the 
President  of  Oxford  Seminary.  Her  name 
was  Helen  Peabody.  Three  years  ago  she  was 
stricken  down  with  a  fatal  illness,  but  she  told 
no  one.  No  physician  knew  it;  not  even  her 
closest  friends  had  the  remotest  inkling.  She 
went  about  her  work,  day  by  day.  She  had 
always  been  most  faithful  to  her  church,  but 
suddenly  she  ceased  coming.  I  wondered  why. 
I  knew  she  loved  the  church  and  the  work  of 
the  church  as  much  as  ever,  having  already 
willed  everything  she  had,  $15,000,  to  missions. 
So  I  put  it  down  to  old  age.  She  is  seventy- 
eight,  I  argued,  and  feels  too  feeble  to  sit 
through  the  service.     Ah,  little  did  any  of  us 


94  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

suspicion  the  mortal  malady  that  was  eating 
away  her  life.  The  pain  must  have  been  ex- 
cruciating, but  she  never  murmured.  She 
lived  alone.  No  one  knew  she  suffered  from  a 
cancer  till  less  than  a  week  before  she  passed 
on.  Patiently  she  carried  her  cross,  and  for 
years,  and  when  she  laid  it  down  before  the 
great  white  throne,  I  think  she  must  have  said, 
"  Here,  dear  Lord,  I  carried  it  all  for  Thee." 
Do  you  know  any  greater  heroism  than  that? 
Here  was  a  lonely  woman  with  no  human  sym- 
pathy, supported  absolutely  by  the  abiding 
presence  of  Christ.  Her  friends  would  say  to 
her,  "  Don't  you  feel  lonely  in  this  big  house 
all  by  yourself  ?  "  And  she  would  always  an- 
swer, "  Fm  not  alone :  I  have  a  Friend."  This 
it  is  that  makes  the  Twenty-third  Psalm  such 
a  comfortable  Scripture.  In  every  verse  there 
is  the  sunshine  of  His  healing  presence.  He 
leadeth  me ;  He  findeth  me ;  He  restoreth  me ; 
He  comforteth  me.  "  Thou  art  with  me,"  is 
the  inference  from  every  phrase.  He  an- 
oints me.  He  prepares  a  table  before  me. 
"  Surely  goodness  and  mercy  shall  follow  me 
all  the  days  of  my  life  and  I  shall  dwell  in  His 
house  forever." 

(3)   Christ  in  us. 

But  we  have  not  got  out  into  the  deepest 
water  yet.     So  let  us  sound  for  a  moment  the 


GOOD  HEALTH  AND  COMFORT     95 

channel  of  this  gracious  river,  "  Christ  in  us." 
"I  live,"  says  the  apostle,  "yet,  not  I,  but 
Christ  liveth  in  me."  And  this  matter  of 
Christ  being  in  us,  be  it  noted,  is  a  literal  fact. 
It  is  not  a  figure  of  speech.  We  do  not  mean 
by  it  an  influence  or  a  memory  or  a  spiritual 
sympathy.  We  mean  it  literally.  As  God  was 
in  Christ  so  Christ  is  in  us.  He  abides  in  us. 
He  does  not  come  and  go  occasionally,  by  fits 
and  starts,  as  it  were.  "Abide  in  Me  and  I 
in  you."  "  He  that  abideth  in  Me  and  I  in  him 
the  same  beareth  much  fruit."  Goethe  says 
that  the  charm  of  certain  things  lies  in  their 
ephemeralness.  No  one,  he  vows,  would 
trouble  much  to  study  a  rainbow  that  stood  for 
an  hour.  The  fascinating  thing  about  the  rain- 
bow is  its  fugitive  frailty.  But  our  Lord 
teaches  the  glory  of  the  permanent.  "  Behold, 
I  stand  at  the  door  and  knock ;  if  any  man  open 
the  door  I  will  come  in  " — I,  I,  the  personal  I, 
note — "  I  will  come  in  and  sup  with  him,"  and 
abide  with  him. 

So,  let  us  keep  on  insisting  that  it  is  not 
metaphorical.  It  is  literal.  It  is  the  very  nub 
and  hub  of  the  Gospel.  It  is  the  very  root  of 
our  religion.  The  Christian  is  grafted  into 
Christ,  and  Christ  is  to  be  formed  in  him  by  the 
power  of  His  grafted  life,  as  once  He  was 
formed  in  the  womb  of  the  Virgin  by  the  power 


96  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Into  our  emptiness  He  will 
come  with  His  gracious  fulness,  into  our  death 
with  His  life,  into  our  trouble  with  His  eternal 
joy.  A  good  deal  has  worked  its  way  into 
theology  that  does  not  belong  to  it,  but  this  is 
native,  this  is  indigenous,  this  is  what  Matthew 
Arnold  called  "  the  inwardness  of  Jesus.''  A 
book  has  recently  been  written  which  is  in- 
tended to  show  that  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  we  have  that  which  distinguishes  Chris- 
tianity from  all  other  religions.  Pantheism 
speaks  of  God  being  in  us,  but  then 
Pantheism  identifies  indweller  and  indwelt. 
The  Christian  conception  is  of  a  Divine 
Spirit  dwelling  in  man  but  distinct  from  him. 
True  religion  is  not  a  creed  nor  an  emotion 
nor  a  feeling  nor  a  ritual ;  true  religion  is  God 
living  in  the  soul,  abiding  there  and  taking 
full  possession,  there  being  no  room  into  which 
He  does  not  ask  to  go.  He  claims  the  whole 
house.  He  claims  the  conscience  to  make  it 
keen,  the  will  to  make  it  strenuous,  the  affec- 
tions to  make  them  vigorous.  We  talk  much 
about  holiness.  But  what  is  holiness?  Holi- 
ness is  the  indwelling  of  Christ.  We  have  as 
much  of  holiness  as  we  have  of  Him.  The 
great  thing  is  to  have  Christ  formed  in  us. 
Christ  is  made  unto  us  sanctification.  Instead 
of  indwelling  sin  an  indwelling  Christ  master- 
ing it.     The  Holy  Spirit  will  glorify  Christ  in 


GOOD  HEALTH  AND  COMFORT     97 

us.  Christ  Jesus  coming  into  the  heart  and 
taking  charge  of  the  mansion — this  is  the  secret 
of  holiness. 

We  have  an  old  hymn  "  Oh  to  be  nothing, 
nothing !  '*  The  hymn  has  been  criticised  con- 
siderably, but  withal  does  it  not  strike  a  funda- 
mental note  ?  We  are  naught  but  earthen  ves- 
sels, empty  vessels.  Perhaps  it  would  be  truer 
to  say  in  the  third  line  "  a  cleansed  and  empty 
channel."  If  we  are  His  then  we  are  channels. 
He  is  the  fountain  out  of  which  all  fulness 
flows;  we  are  but  channels  down  which  it 
pours.  How  the  current  rushes  when  it  feels 
the  infinite  stream  behind  it!  Dear  Friend, 
are  you  a  channel  through  which  surges  the 
impelling  efficiency  of  God  ?  Have  you  opened 
your  life  to  the  Divine  overflow  ?  That  is  what 
spirituality  means.  Spirituality  is  simply  God 
expressing  Himself  through  the  channel  of  the 
life  of  man.  Are  you  willing  to  take  a  blank 
check  and  sign  your  name  to  it  and  hand  it  to 
the  Lord,  telling  Him  to  fill  it  out?  The 
Christian  is  like  a  rented  house.  He  belongs 
to  the  proprietor.  Oh,  we  have  given  our- 
selves to  Him  so  feebly,  so  partially,  so  condi- 
tionally, that  no  wonder  we  live  at  a  poor  dying 
rate,  no  wonder  our  tide  is  at  the  ebb. 

One  word  more !  Among  the  last  words  of 
Ernest  Renan  were  these,  "  There  is  no  power 
I  know  that  can  save  Christianity  from  its  fast 


98  A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

approaching  decline."  And  I  rather  think  he 
was  right ;  there  was  no  power  he  knew.  But 
there  is  a  power  we  know.  Goldwin  Smith,  in 
his  little  volume,  "  In  Quest  of  Light,"  says, 
quoting  Sabatier,  "  The  days  of  traditional  re- 
ligion are  numbered ;  the  papacy  will  last  long- 
est because  of  its  imposing  ritual,  but  they  are 
all  numbered."  And  a  man  of  letters  said  the 
other  day,  "  In  fifty  years  your  Christianity 
will  have  died  out." 

Now  the  odd  thing  about  these  predictions 
is  that  they  have  been  made  with  equal  confi- 
dence ever  since  the  time  of  Celsus.  Christi- 
anity does  not  rest  on  this  or  that  theory  of 
the  atonement ;  it  does  not  lean  on  this  or  that 
view  of  inspiration.  Jesus  Christ  did  not  come 
to  give  us  a  right  conception  of  the  Trinity. 
The  vital  fact  about  the  gospel  is  that  it  is  a 
dynamic.  It  came  to  the  disciples  and  it  comes 
to  us  as  a  life-giving,  life-sustaining  force. 
This  is  the  crux  of  the  whole  question.  It  is 
here  I  take  it  that  our  faith  is  yet  going  to  be 
triumphantly  vindicated.  The  great  question 
is  not  a  question  of  criticism;  it  is  a  question 
of  life.  Preaching  morality  does  not  make 
men  moral.  The  first  need  is  life.  The 
Master  is  energetic  in  human  hearts  to-day. 
He  is  living  in  His  followers.  "  I  live,"  says 
the  apostle,  "yet  not  I;  but  Christ  liveth  in 


A  COMFORTABLE  EQUIPMENT 


A   COMFORTABLE  EQUIPMENT 
"  And  your  feet  shod." — Ephesians  6:15. 

MARK  GUY  PEARSE,  of  London, 
has  written  a  short,  quaint  story 
entitled  "  The  Riddle  of  Ubique." 
He  begins  by  telling  us  how  he  once  found 
himself  in  a  strange  city  called  Ubique — 
Ubique  being  the  Latin  word  for  everywhere. 
The  first  thing  that  struck  him  on  entering  the 
city  was  that  all  the  inhabitants  were  bare- 
footed. It  distressed  him  greatly  to  see  them 
limping  along  in  such  a  painful  manner,  espe- 
cially as  it  was  winter  and  the  ground  was 
hard  and  cold.  Nor  did  the  people  seem  poor. 
Rather  otherwise  indeed.  All  were  well- 
dressed.  There  were  ladies  in  furs  and  stylish 
gowns.  Gentlemen  passed  along  warmly  muf- 
fled with  scarfs,  all  wearing  gloves,  all  carry- 
ing canes,  but  all  as  foot-naked  as  Whittier's 
barefoot  boy. 

The  author  of  course  was  surprised,  and  he 
was  still  more  surprised  when  told  that  shoe- 
making  was  one  of  the  principal  industries  of 
the  place,  that  many  large  buildings  were  used 
solely  in  the  making  of  shoes,  and  that  the 
101 


102        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

managers  of  these  factories  were  among  the 
respected  members  of  the  community.  But 
the  most  surprising  thing  of  all  was  that  once 
a  week  the  people  were  all  invited  to  come  and 
be  duly  shod.  Out  of  curiosity  the  author 
went  to  one  of  these  gatherings  in  one  of  the 
factories,  and  there  listened  to  a  reading  from 
a  certain  popular  treatise,  followed  by  a  most 
learned  address  by  the  Superintendent  on  the 
question,  "  Is  there  such  a  thing  as  a  foot  ?  " 

He  was  puzzled  to  be  sure,  did  not  know 
what  to  make  of  it,  and  judging  from  the  faces 
of  the  audience,  all  were  as  puzzled  as  himself. 
How  could  these  poor  people  with  chilblains, 
lameness,  sore  feet,  how  could  they  listen 
soberly  to  a  man  endeavouring  to  discover 
whether  or  not  such  a  thing  as  a  foot  exists, 
and  in  the  end  arguing  negatively  ?  What  was 
his  further  surprise  to  find  that  none  of  these 
establishments  actually  made  shoes,  but  were 
'simply  places  where  shoes  were  talked  about! 
The  subjects  as  advertised  being  usually  such 
subjects  as  these,  "  Leather  symbolically  con- 
sidered; "  '*  Insteps  a  poem; ''  "Awls  ancient 
and  modern ;  "  "  The  philosophy  of  heels." 

One  morning,  while  strolling  about  the 
poorer  quarter  of  the  city,  he  found  a  cobbler*s 
sign  over  the  door.  Entering,  he  found  the 
workman  on  his  stool  actually  making  a  shoe. 


A  COMFORTABLE  EQUIPMENT  103 

"  And  do  you  really  make  shoes  here?  "  he  in- 
quired. The  cobbler  smiled  and  remarked 
that  he  was  evidently  a  stranger  in  the  place. 
But  finding  that  the  man  did  surely  make  foot- 
gear, he  hastened  to  tell  all  his  acquaintances. 
Right  and  left  he  scattered  the  good  news, 
supposing,  of  course,  that  every  one  would  be 
overjoyed  and  that  crowds  would  flock  to  the 
little  factory  around  the  corner. 

Quite  the  contrary,  however,  was  the  case. 
The  newspapers  ridiculed  the  notion.  The 
ladies  shouted  "  vulgar."  To  take  people's 
measure,  indeed;  it  was  low;  it  was  personal; 
it  was  coarse.  To  make  boots  and  shoes!  it 
was  unscriptural.  To  destroy  all  that  was 
poetical  about  the  making  of  shoes,  all  that  was 
figurative,  and  to  give  people  the  real  actual 
article — boots  and  shoes  that  could  be  touched 
and  handled  and  blacked  and  shined  and 
brushed  and  buttoned  and  laced  and  worn — 
why,  it  was  out  of  the  question.  What  pos- 
sible connection  with  the  Sublime  and  the  In- 
finite and  the  All,  if  boots  and  shoes  were 
going  to  be  made  and  put  on  and  worn  ? 

Now,  Mr.  Pearse  wisely  refrains  from  ex- 
plaining his  parable,  knowing  it  would  spoil 
its  literary  charm.  And  we  are  not  concerned 
this  morning  with  its  literary  charm,  nor  with 
its  relation  to  Pantheism,  nor  any  of  the  Ori- 
ental schemes  of  philosophy.     What  we  are 


104        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

concerned  about  is  its  relation  to  religion.  It 
is  the  aim  of  religion  to  arm  the  soul  of  man 
with  a  faith  that  shall  protect  him  in  his  pas- 
sage through  this  difficult  wintry  world.  For 
the  world  is  a  hostile  world.  It  is  full  of  traps, 
full  of  pitfalls,  full  of  secret  infection.  At 
every  turn  some  enemy  lies  ambushed,  some 
lion  lies  lurking.  The  old  idea  was  that  the 
purpose  of  religion  was  to  fit  us  for  heaven, 
but  to-day  we  regard  its  primary  ministry  as 
fitting  us  for  earth.  The  religion  of  Jesus  is 
a  supremely  practical  thing.  It  is  not  a  dis- 
cussion on  leather;  it  is  giving  the  world  a 
solid,  useful,  comfortable,  wearable  pair  of 
shoes.  Sometimes  we  hear  it  asked,  '*  What 
are  your  views.  Sir,  concerning  religion?" 
The  question  is  an  anachronism  to-day.  Reli- 
gion is  not  a  matter  of  views  any  more.  We 
have  long  since  journeyed  past  that  kinder- 
garten stage.  Religion  is  a  matter  of  wear 
and  tear,  of  lip  and  life,  of  business  and  be- 
haviour. Let  us  the  rather  ask  each  other, 
"What  is  your  use  of  religion?"  To  what 
purpose  are  we  putting  the  gracious  dynamic? 
How  is  it  expressing  itself  in  the  dull  stretch  of 
ordinary  living?  Is  the  garden  of  the  Lord  fat 
and  flourishing?  What  fruit  is  made  visible  to 
the  critical  passer-by?  These  are  the  ques- 
tions that  touch  the  nerve  of  every  sensitive 
faith  to-day. 


A  COMFORTABLE  EQUIPMENT  105 

Now  there  are  three  things  that  enter 
into  every  human  equation.  Speaking  broadly, 
they  are  Work,  Joy,  Sorrow.  "  If  any  will 
not  work  neither  let  him  eat."  "  Ask  and  ye 
shall  receive  that  your  joy  may  be  made  full.'* 
"  Man  is  born  to  trouble  as  the  sparks  fly  up- 
ward." What  connection  does  our  religion 
sustain  to  these  three  great  ministries  of  the 
Divine  appointment?  Let  us  meditate  for  a 
moment  on  the  relationship. 

I.    WORK 

A  young  physician  said  to  me  the  other  day, 
"Are  you  going  to  preach  Sabbath  morn- 
ing?" I  said,  "Yes,  I  think  so,  why?" 
"  Well,"  he  went  on,  "  I  have  a  friend  who 
is  an  intern  with  me  down  at  the  hospital.  I 
think  he  hasn't  very  long  and  I  want  to  bring 
him  up  to  hear  you."  He  hoped  that  I  might 
do  him  good.  Now,  this  young  man  is  not  a 
Christian  himself.  He  evidently  thinks  that 
religion  is  a  good  thing  to  die  by.  But  it  is 
just  here  he  is  so  pathetically  mistaken.  The 
purpose  of  religion  is  not  primarily  to  teach 
us  how  to  die  but  to  teach  us  how  to  live. 
Dying  is  easy :  it  is  living  that  is  hard.  It  is 
not  death  that  is  the  key- word  of  the  New 
Testament  but  life.  There  is  no  aspect  of  our 
daily  work  that  true  religion  does  not  touch 
and  colour  and  illustrate  and  adorn.     Religion 


106        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

means  putting  one's  soul  into  his  task.  The 
field,  the  shop,  the  farm,  the  bank,  the  home, 
the  husband,  the  wife,  the  child,  the  college,  the 
polling-booth,  the  citizen,  all  fall  within  the 
empire  of  religion.  If  this  evangel  of  the 
resurrection  cannot  stand  the  strain  of  a  busy, 
active  career,  then  it  is  an  idle  tale  and  un- 
worthy, signifying  nothing.  Because  its 
promise  is  to  help  living  men  in  all  places  and 
under  all  conditions. 

It  is  not  an  uncommon  thing  to  hear  men 
say  to-day  something  like  this,  "  I  do  not  be- 
lieve it  is  possible  to  be  in  business  these  times 
and  be  a  Christian."  "  Religion  is  religion 
and  business  is  business,"  so  they  argue.  They 
do  not  mix.  They  never  were  meant  to  mix. 
The  Syrians  called  Jehovah  the  God  of  the 
hills,  not  the  valleys,  and  the  Greeks  believed 
Neptune  to  be  confined  to  the  sea.  Just  so, 
those  there  are  who  think  that  God  dwells  in 
churches,  in  cemeteries,  in  consecrated  places, 
in  their  homes  where  some  loved  one  lies 
asleep.  He  never  visits  their  stores,  their 
schools,  their  mills,  their  offices.  One  of  the 
judges  of  our  Supreme  Court  said  recently  in 
a  public  address,  "  The  doctor  deals  with  men's 
bodies,  the  lawyer  with  their  material  interests, 
but  the  preacher  with  the  life  to  come."  But 
what  a  strange  and  lamentable  misconception ! 
And  coming  from  a  judge,  what  an  unpardon- 


A  COMFORTABLE  EQUIPMENT  107 

able  error!  Surely  no  student  of  the  Bible 
would  accept  such  to-day.  It  might  have  been 
accepted  in  the  Middle  Ages,  certainly  not 
now.  For  if  this  message  of  ours  cannot  be 
brought  into  studio  and  street  and  park  and 
primary  and  made  workable,  of  what  avail  is 
it  ?  What  real  good  ?  "  It  is  worth  noting," 
exclaims  Proudhon,  "  how  at  the  bottom  of  all 
our  politics  we  find  theology."  Yes,  and 
equally  worth  noting  is  the  fact  that  at  the 
bottom  of  all  noble  living  is  true  religion.  Not 
for  any  system  of  theology  do  we  plead,  but 
for  that  pure  and  undefiled  devoutness  before 
God  and  the  Father,  which  keeps  oneself  un- 
spotted from  the  world.  The  Christian  life 
is  not  thin  and  weak  and  poor;  it  is  strong, 
full,  ample,  spacious.  It  is  not  the  pale  prim- 
rose of  self-denial;  it  is  the  red  rose  of  beauti- 
ful and  fragrant  delight.  And  the  crying 
call  of  the  hour  is  for  men  and  women  who 
will  take  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  with  them  and 
go  down  into  Broadway  and  Wall  Street  and 
State  Street  and  Oxford  Street  and  the  Strand 
and  live  Him.  The  preacher  is  dealing  with 
the  present,  not  the  future.  He  is  concerned 
with  to-day,  not  yesterday.  The  Master  does 
not  look  askance  at  civilisation.  There  is  not 
one  system  of  morals  for  the  market  and  an- 
other for  the  monastery.  A  merchant  may  be 
just  as  saintly  as  a  monk.     It  is  full  as  much 


108        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

a  mistake  to  neglect  our  business  for  our  reli- 
gion as  to  neglect  our  religion  for  our  busi- 
ness. We  are  not  called  upon  to  throw  away 
our  nets  and  give  up  our  fishing.  The  loom 
and  the  anvil  and  the  saw  and  the  plane  are 
all  divine.  Work  was  meant  for  a  blessing. 
We  must  not  make  of  it  a  curse.  God  did  not 
make  half  of  this  world  and  Satan  the  other 
half.  The  good  kind  Father  made  it  all.  The 
whole  world  is  His.  And  He  has  turned  it 
over  to  man  to  subdue,  dominate,  control. 
There  is  nothing  that  has  not  its  legitimate 
place  if  we  can  but  find  it.  Only  we  are  not 
to  put  things  above  life.  We  are  to  put  life 
above  things.  We  are  to  use  this  world  as 
not  abusing  it. 

II.   JOY 

A  German  writer  has  recently  published  a 
book  entitled  "  Homo  Sum,"  "  I  am  a  human 
being."  The  book  is  a  plea  for  all  of  God's 
out-of-doors.  I  have  been  placed  on  this 
planet  and  therefore  the  planet  must  have  been 
meant  for  me.  I  am  a  human  being  and  the 
world  is  mine.  The  story  of  the  book  centres 
round  an  old  hermit  whose  custom  was  to  walk 
down  the  mountainside  each  day  to  carry  from 
a  little  spring  a  pitcher  of  water,  with  which 
to  wash  down  his  crust  of  bread.  One  morn- 
ing he  met  a  child  coming  up  from  the  rich 


A  COMFORTABLE  EQUIPMENT  109 

valley  below.  The  story  goes  on  to  tell  how 
at  last  the  charm  of  the  child  conquered  the 
old  hermit,  and  induced  him  to  break  away 
from  his  cave  and  court  God's  lovely  world. 
It  is  the  same  mistaken  notion  that  looks  upon 
the  Christian  faith  as  opposed  to  the  world's 
pleasures.  Young  people  think  of  discipleship 
as  a  morbid,  melancholy  matter  for  the  old, 
the  decrepit,  the  dying.  Henry  Drummond 
was  once  asked  how  he  would  define  religious 
cant.  "  Well,"  he  made  answer,  "  there  is  the 
religion  of  a  young  man — that  is  beautiful; 
and  the  religion  of  an  old  woman — that  is 
beautiful;  but  when  I  see  a  young  man  act  like 
an  old  woman,  that  is  cant."  And  there  are 
few  things  that  bring  religion  so  much  into  dis- 
repute. God  means  happiness  for  all  His  chil- 
dren, and  happiness  along  their  own  legitimate 
lines.  Any  other  supposition  is  a  slander  on 
the  best  of  Beings. 

Edmund  Gosse,  the  literary  critic,  has  just 
given  us  a  book  entitled  "  Father  and  Son." 
The  purpose  of  the  book  is  to  trace  the  disrup- 
tion in  religious  thought  between  himself  and 
his  father.  The  father,  Philip  Gosse,  belonged 
to  the  Plymouth  Brethren.  He  was  a  scien- 
tist and  a  writer  of  note  on  zoology.  He  was 
a  friend  of  Darwin.  In  fact  Darwin  gave 
him  the  manuscript  of  his  great  book,  "  Origin 
of  Species,"  to  review  when  it  was  completed. 


110        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

But  the  point  at  issue  is  this :  Philip  Gosse  was 
a  Christian  of  the  narrowest  kind.  Both 
father  and  mother  were  Puritans  of  the  stern- 
est type.  The  very  food  they  ate  was  Spartan. 
The  lad  was  allowed  no  playmates.  No  fic- 
tion was  permitted  in  the  home,  not  even 
Shakespeare.  The  nearest  approach  to  romance 
was  lives  of  missionaries.  "  I  had  never  heard 
of  Jack  the  Giant  Killer  nor  Little  Red  Riding 
Hood,"  says  the  author,  "  until  I  was  grown 
up;  I  had  never  read  any  children's  stories. 
When  I  grew  older  they  made  me  read  the- 
ology to  them  at  night  till  the  sight  of  the 
books  became  an  abomination.  Both  were  de- 
termined that  I  should  become  a  minister.'* 

The  morning  and  evening  prayers  were  long 
and  tedious.  "  Father  loved  me  but  chastised 
me  unmercifully.  If  I  did  anything  naughty 
he  flogged  me  with  a  cane  till  the  blood  flowed, 
and  he  did  it,  mark,  not  out  of  temper  or 
cruelty,  for  he  was  not  quick  nor  cruel,  but 
he  did  it  in  the  name  of  religion.  He  justified 
it  by  Scripture.  All  Scripture  was  literal  to 
him,  verbally  inspired.  He  was  a  hyper- 
Calvinist."  The  result  being  that  religion  be- 
came a  horrid  nightmare  to  the  boy.  "  When 
I  was  eight  years  old  I  was  given  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  to  study.  I  spent  months  on 
it.  Then  I  was  put  on  Job,  then  on  the 
Psalms.    When  I  came  to  that  verse  *  Oh,  how 


A  COMFORTABLE  EQUIPMENT  111 

I  love  Thy  law/  I  wanted  to  read  it, '  Oh,  how  I 
hate  Thy  law/  I  wanted  to  hit  law  with  my  fist. 
Sunday  was  a  dreadful  day.  I  was  dressed  in 
black.    It  was  a  long  drawn  out  funeral." 

The  result  is  that  Philip  Gosse  lost  his  boy. 
Edmund  Gosse  to-day  is  an  agnostic.  He  is 
one  of  the  world's  great  essayists,  but  his  mind 
early  became  poisoned  against  evangelical  reli- 
gion. Jesus  Christ  was  misrepresented  to 
him.  Mr.  Harold  Begbie  has  written  a  book 
called  "  The  Happy  Christ."  In  it  he  tries  to 
show  that  happiness  was  the  most  notable 
mark  of  Jesus.  True,  this  has  not  been  the 
ideal  of  the  painter  or  the  sculptor.  The  note 
that  has  sent  a  shock  through  the  human  race 
like  the  quiver  of  a  battery  has  been  the 
suffering  of  Christ.  But  Jesus  Himself  said, 
"  My  joy."  "  These  things  have  I  spoken  unto 
you  that  My  joy  might  remain  in  you  and  your 
joy  might  be  full."  George  Macdonald  some- 
where says  that  God  does  not  intend  us  to  ac- 
cept the  grey  look  of  life  as  the  true  one.  He 
has  made  us  for  joy  and  gladness.  Joy  is  the 
fruit  of  the  Vine.  It  is  one  cluster  on  the 
branch.  "  I  came  to  bring  you  the  oil  of  joy 
for  mourning,"  says  the  prophet.  And  our 
joy  here  is  only  a  foretaste  of  the  joy  to  come. 
"  Enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  the  Lord."  Are 
not  these  the  words  with  which  the  faithful 
are  welcomed  into  the  light  above? 


112        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

Oh,  all  ye  to  whose  guiding  oversight  the 
young  are  entrusted,  impress  early  and  deeply 
on  their  plastic  minds  the  lesson  that  religion 
is  a  delightful  thing.  Plant  the  little  garden 
of  their  hearts  with  evergreens  and  rosebushes. 
Never  put  a  weeping  willow  where  a  lilac  or  a 
honeysuckle  ought  to  be.  Let  the  trees  be 
Christmas  trees.  I  would  not  take  them  first  to 
the  sick-room  where  Lazarus  lies.  I  would  go 
with  them  first  to  Cana  of  Galilee,  where  the 
Master  began  His  miraculous  ministry.  Show 
them  a  Saviour  in  sympathy  with  their  social 
nature.  Teach  them  that  Christianity  is  a 
wedding,  not  a  funeral.  Strive  most  patiently 
against  having  them  connect  trust  with  tears, 
or  holiness  with  hardness,  or  sanctification 
with  sourness.  See  to  it  that  the  church  is 
made  a  cheerful  not  a  chilly  place,  the  Sabbath 
a  day  of  gladness,  not  gloom.  Tell  them  it 
makes  our  Heavenly  Father  happy  to  see  His 
little  children  happy.  For  surely  only  thus  do 
we  express  the  mind  and  teaching  and  will  of 
Him  who  made  childhood  the  chief  parable  of 
His  Kingdom,  and  who  said  that  the  greatest 
are  the  most  childlike. 

III.   SORROW 

The  old  proverb  tells  us  that  we  do  not  go 
to  Heaven  in  silver  slippers,  and  the  reason  is 
because  the  road  is  rough.     "  Thy  shoes  shall 


A  COMFORTABLE  EQUIPMENT  113 

be  iron  and  brass."  If  metal  is  needed,  then 
surely  the  trail  must  be  sharp  and  stony.  He 
who  is  sent  along  a  journey  provided  with  a 
pair  of  iron  greaves  can  safely  make  up  his 
mind  that  the  path  is  not  going  to  be  a  prim- 
rose one.  When  Nansen  fitted  up  his  two 
ships  for  the  North  Pole,  a  friend  of  mine 
visited  him  the  day  before  he  sailed.  He  was 
impressed  with  the  thick  heavy  plating,  the 
stout  cordage,  the  huge  chains.  "  This  does 
not  look  like  yachting,  Captain,"  he  remarked. 
Just  so,  if  the  soul  is  provided  for  sorrow  then 
it  is  safe  to  argue  that  sooner  or  later  sorrow 
will  meet  us.  Feet  shod  means  hardship 
ahead. 

And  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  teaches  us  how 
to  bear  sorrow.  He  helps  us  to  bear  it.  He 
gives  us  comfort  in  bearing  it.  Comfort  im- 
plies two  people  at  least,  making  strong  to- 
gether. "  As  thy  days  so  shall  thy  strength 
be."  Instance  the  case  of  Henry  Drummond. 
Here  was  a  man  in  the  pink  of  health,  stricken 
suddenly  by  a  strange,  incurable  malady,  dying 
slowly,  month  by  month,  and  much  of  the  time 
in  torture.  He  was  laid  on  his  back  for  more 
than  a  year  with  an  affection  of  the  bones. 
Both  arms  were  paralysed,  yet  never  once,  says 
his  friend  and  biographer,  George  Adam 
Smith,  "  never  once  did  he  lose  his  trust ;  never 
once  did  he  lose  his  cheerfulness.     He  kept 


114        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

his  good  stories  for  his  friends.  They  went 
to  strengthen  himj  he  strengthened  them."  He 
was  only  forty-six.  There  he  lay,  with  a 
smile  on  his  lips  and  love  in  his  heart,  and 
when  the  end  at  last  came,  to  quote  his  own 
happy  phrase,  "  he  put  by  the  well-worn  tools 
without  a  sigh  and  went  out  expecting  else- 
where better  work  to  do."  Does  any  battle- 
field chronicle  bravery  greater  than  this? 
"  Our  people  die  well,"  said  John  Wesley,  and 
surely  that  is  a  splendid  test.  "  God  is  our 
refuge  and  our  strength;  a  very  present  help 
in  trouble."  He  is  ever  at  our  disposal  if  we 
but  turn  to  Him.  "  The  Lord  is  a  stronghold 
in  the  day  of  trouble  and  He  knoweth  them 
that  trust  in  Him."  "  Call  upon  Me  in  the 
day  of  trouble.  I  will  deliver  thee  and  thou 
shalt  glorify  Me."  Christianity  is  a  com- 
fortable religion.  "  I  will  not  leave  you  com- 
fortless; I  will  come  to  you."  "Blessed  be 
the  God  of  all  comfort,  who  comforteth  us  in 
all  our  tribulations,  that  we  may  be  able  to 
comfort  them  that  are  in  any  trouble  with 
the  comfort  wherewith  we  ourselves  have  been 
comforted  of  God."  "  If  I  were  beginning 
my  ministry  again,"  said  Ian  McLaren  a  little 
before  he  left  us,  "  I  would  preach  more  com- 
forting sermons." 

This,  then,  is  the  message  of  the  hour.     It 
is  a  call  to  j)ut  into  practical  working  effect  the 


A  COMFORTABLE  EQUIPMENT  115 

great  spiritual  articles  of  our  evangel.  World- 
liness  has  been  defined  as  looking  at  things  that 
are  seen,  but  only  closely  enough  to  see  their 
market  value.  Spirituality  is  that  farther  look 
that  sees  their  eternal  value.  True  spiritual- 
ity is  seeing  divinity  in  common  things.  I 
wonder  how  many  of  us  are  making  real  use 
of  our  faith,  day  by  day,  to  make  us  true  and 
upright  in  business,  humble  in  success,  brave 
in  failure,  steadfast  in  sorrow,  to  keep  us 
kindly  affectioned  and  sweet-hearted  in  the 
home,  to  restrain  us  from  pride  and  envy  and 
uncharitableness  and  despair.  How  many 
have  the  peace,  the  satisfaction,  the  comfort 
of  those  whose  feet  are  shod  with  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  gospel !  It  it  well  that  our  Master 
is  precious ;  but  is  He  inspiring  ?  That  is  better. 
The  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  an  inspiration.  He 
breathes  into  us  His  own  life.  His  own  peace, 
His  own  joy.  This  is  His  legacy  to  His  chil- 
dren. "  I  am  come  that  you  might  have  life.'* 
"  I  am  the  life."  "  Peace  I  leave  with  you, 
My  peace  I  give  unto  you."  "If  ye  know 
these  things,  happy  are  ye  if  ye  do  them."  And 
yet  how  many  professed  followers  are  found 
seeking  satisfaction  and  fulness  at  the  world's 
vain  vaudevilles!  How  many  are  making  an 
honest  test  of  their  spiritual  heirship  to  cheer 
them  in  prison  and  cause  them  to  sing!  Do 
we  not  often  meet  Christians  climbing  the 


116        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

steep,  flinty  trails  of  life's  mountainous  incline 
with  bare  and  bleeding  feet  ?  How  often  we 
see  the  Lord's  children  vexed  with  care,  filled 
with  doubt,  fretting  over  the  morrow,  irritable, 
complaining,  unhappy,  driven  as  by  a  tyrant  to 
their  task,  their  life  lacking  uplift,  haughty  in 
victory,  bitter  and  rebellious  in  defeat.  Be- 
loved, it  is  wrong;  utterly,  sinfully  wrong.  The 
Lord  saves  us,  and,  what  is  better.  He  keeps 
us.  And,  too.  He  cheers  us.  His  programme 
is  to  ease  hearts,  to  preach  good  tidings  to  poor 
people,  to  proclaim  release  to  all  in  prison. 
Religion  is  not  a  theory.  Theology  is,  but  not 
religion.  Religion  is  the  most  practical  thing 
imaginable.  It  is  a  good  thing  to  die  by  and 
'tis  full  as  good  a  thing  to  live  by.  How  poor 
a  thing  is  it  to  argue  by!  Whensoever  we 
begin  arguing  over  it  we  lose  its  beauteous 
and  refreshing  secret,  but  when  we  accept  it 
on  trust  and  apply  it  to  the  humdrum  of  daily 
duty,  what  a  satisfaction  and  a  comfort  and  a 
glory  it  lends  to  life.  It  is  adapted  to  our  work, 
to  our  joys,  to.  our  sorrows.  It  is  a  good, 
strong,  warm,  serviceable  pair  of  shoes.  Verily, 
that  critic  was  not  far  wrong  when  he  said  of 
his  faith,  describing  it,  "  It  is  to  have  a  good 
pair  of  shoes,  to  shine  them  up,  and  to  wear 
them  every  day." 


COMFORT  AND  ENTHUSIASM 


COMFORT  AND  ENTHUSIASM 

"  Did  not  our  hearts  burn  within  us  ?  "—Luke  24 :  32. 

A  RELIGION,  robbed  of  emotion,  may 
be  a  religion,  but  it  is  not  the 
-  Christian  religion.  The  Christian 
religion  is  heart-burning;  it  is  a  manifestation 
of  the  heart.  Of  old  there  has  been  much  dis- 
cussion as  to  the  root  of  that  word  religion. 
The  best  scholars  of  the  day  are  coming  to 
feel  with  Cicero,  that  the  womb  of  the  word  is 
the  Latin  lego,  "  to  read,"  meaning  thereby  the 
reading  and  rereading  of  the  sacred  books,  the 
truly  religious  man  being,  as  the  Psalmist  says, 
he  "  whose  delight  is  in  the  law  of  the  Lord." 
The  exclamation  used  is  one  of  strong  feel- 
ing, "  Oh,  the  happiness  of  the  man  whose 
delight  is  in  the  law  of  Jehovah  and  on  whose 
law  he  doth  meditate  day  and  night."  There 
are  many  philosophies  of  religion,  many  his- 
tories, many  analyses,  but  the  thing  itself  is  a 
noun  of  the  singular  number.  True  religion  is 
not  a  philosophy,  not  a  history,  not  an  analysis ; 
true  religion  is  nothing  more  or  less  than  the 
impression  of  God  upon  the  heart.  It  is  the 
119 


120        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

music  wrought  when  the  human  harp  is  played 
upon  by  the  divine.  So  it  is  experimental;  it 
is  lyrical;  it  touches  the  strings  of  the  soul;  it 
is  the  poetry  of  the  spiritual  nature.  Impas- 
sioned? To  be  sure  it  is  impassioned.  All 
true  poetry  is  impassioned. 

Moreover  the  symbol  of  our  faith  is  a  cross. 
On  that  cross  its  Founder  died.  On  that  same 
cross  we  too  must  die.  Think  you  we  can  be 
nailed  to  that  tree  and  learn  the  fellowship  of 
His  sufferings  and  be  made  conformable  unto 
His  death,  and  not  be  thrilled  with  an  impetu- 
ous and  burning  zeal  ?  After  all,  is  not  every- 
thing great  in  life  a  passion?  Hope,  justice, 
sacrifice,  sympathy,  patriotism — are  they  not  all 
imperial  passions?  One  need  not  stop  surely, 
to  add  love.  Legal,  love  cannot  be,  nor  mer- 
cenary. Love  is  a  divine  and  splendid  pas- 
sion. Home!  Home,  too,  drops  into  the  list. 
Home  is  not  a  hotel,  not  a  restaurant,  not  an 
incorporated  concern.  Home  is  the  family  of 
God.  Take  that  divine  thing  we  call  passion 
out  of  the  home,  and  what  is  left?  One  might 
well  dare  to  claim  that  every  great  idea  that 
has  any  life  in  it  is  a  passion;  and  religion, 
being  a  life,  must  be  impassioned,  must  be 
warm,  must  be  sensitive,  must  be  threaded 
through  and  through  with  a  network  of  ex- 
quisite nerves.    If  not,  it  would  soon  lose  the 


COMFORT  AND  ENTHUSIASM    121 

glow  and  freshness  of  its  heavenly  fran- 
chise; it  would  soon  lose  its  charm;  it  would 
straightway  become  a  dead,  cold,  formal 
thing. 

Exceeding  anxious  am  I  to  labour  this  and 
have  you  all  concede  it,  because  we  are  liv- 
ing in  an  age  that  aims  to  rob  religion  of  its 
inflammatory  touch.  We  are  living  in  an  age 
of  criticism  and  analysis,  an  age  that  glorifies 
brain.  Everywhere  to-day  the  intellect  is  en- 
throned, the  heart  is  dethroned.  We  keep 
our  garlands  for  the  great  minds,  and 
this  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the 
word  heart  occurs  about  one  thousand 
times  in  Scripture,  the  word  brain  not  once. 
Not  a  few  there  are  who  seem  to  think  that, 
if  you  are  building  on  feeling,  you  are  build- 
ing on  fog.  It  is  unsubstantial,  they  say, 
quicksandy,  treacherous,  dangerous.  They 
look  upon  all  signs  of  emotion  with  distrust. 
They  are  afraid  of  poetry,  exceeding  fearful 
are  they  of  sentiment.  They  never  feel  spirit- 
ually safe,  save  when  standing  on  some  rock- 
hewn  doctrinal  article.  They  are  always  striv- 
ing to  state  their  faith  intellectually,  in  men- 
tal crystals.  Faith,  fresh  and  sweet  and  fra- 
grant, is  dried  up  into  dogma.  They  pour 
cold  water  on  each  and  every  intimation  of 
fervour,     term     it     unbalanced     excitement. 


122        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

*'  The  worst  of  madmen  is  a  saint  run  mad." 
These  same  fearful  ones  forgetting  all  the 
while  that  love  can  see  where  reason  cannot. 
They  forget  that  spiritual  truth  is  oftentimes 
too  subtle  for  verbal  expression.  They  for- 
get that  music  is  sometimes  a  better  guide  to 
the  soul  than  logic.  They  forget  that  emotion 
sometimes  sets  not  only  the  heart  on  fire  but 
the  brain  on  fire,  and  that  even  the  intellect  can 
see  clearer  into  the  root  of  things  if  only  the 
heart  be  warm  and  glowing.  "  Light  enough, 
but  no  heat,"  was  the  way  some  one  described 
ancient  philosophy.  "  Light  enough,  but  no 
heat,"  describes  not  a  little  of  the  theorising 
of  our  day.  But  it  is  heat  the  world  wants 
to-day,  rather  than  light.  Do  you  use  elec- 
tricity in  your  home?  Then  you  are  aware, 
that  the  light  therefrom  does  not  depend  on 
the  amperage,  the  amount  used,  but  on  the 
voltage.  It  is  the  voltage,  the  intensity,  not 
the  quantity  that  produces  the  light,  and  it  is 
the  intensity  of  our  faculties,  not  their  great- 
ness nor  richness,  that  oftentimes  interprets 
life.  The  path  to  sound  thinking  is  not  al- 
ways through  a  big  brain;  sometimes  it  is 
through  a  warm  heart;  the  heart  being  in  the 
end  the  organ  of  vision.  It  is  the  life  on 
fire  that  kindles  the  light.  When  the  object 
is   truth,    the   best   path   to   it   is    sympathy. 


COMFORT  AND  ENTHUSIASM    123 

The  first  enemy  to  be  fought  to-day 
is  sheer  apathy.  This  it  is  that  breaks  the 
heart  of  the  enthusiast — *'  firing  red-hot  shells 
into  mud-banks."  Most  of  the  wrongs  of  the 
world  are  entrenched  behind  great  thick  walls 
of  sheer  indifference.  Full  oft  we  assume  a 
critical  pose.  We  stand  before  the  work  of 
some  master  and  forthwith  apply  the  judicial 
eye.  We  are  afraid  to  give  ourselves  away 
to  it.  We  take  on  what  we  call  a  wholesome 
restraint.  Some  indeed  there  are  who  dread 
what  is  not  proper  more  than  what  is  not 
true.  It  is  the  sure  deathblow  to  enthusiasm. 
Some  years  ago  a  book  was  published  in 
England  entitled,  "  Modern  Christianity  a 
Civilised  Heathenism."  The  gist  of  the  book 
is  how  far  we  have  fallen  from  the  earnest- 
ness of  the  Master.  The  author  holds  that  the 
chief  note  of  Christ's  character  and  teaching 
is  its  all-consuming  fervour,  while  the  chief  note 
of  His  followers  is  their  general  lukewarmness 
and  lethargy,  the  climax  of  the  book  being  that 
if  the  Nazarene  lived  to-day,  the  Church  would 
put  Him  in  an  asylum.  This  is  a  startling  in- 
dictment. Is  it  true?  We  know  what  the  peo- 
ple of  His  own  time  thought  of  Him.  His 
friends  said.  He  is  beside  Himself.  Even  His 
own  brethren  did  not  believe  in  Him.  Some 
said  He  was  a  glutton  and  a  winebibber,  the 


124        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

friend  of  publicans  and  sinners.  Perhaps  there 
is  not  a  more  pathetic  story  in  Hterature  than 
the  disowning  of  Jesus.  He  was  poor  and 
lonely.  He  was  an  outcast.  He  expired  upon 
a  cross,  deserted  and  reputed  mad.  He  was 
born  among  cattle,  He  died  among  thieves. 
Verily  'tis  an  astonishing  story.  But  what  of 
ourselves?  If  the  Lord  of  glory  came  among 
us  to-day,  would  we  receive  Him?  He  was 
warm;  we  are  cold.  He  was  enthusiastic;  we 
are  indifferent.  He  wept  over  Jerusalem;  we 
rarely  weep  even  over  ourselves.  There  has 
been,  for  some  reason  or  another,  a  cooling 
down  of  the  Church's  temperature.  The 
thermometer  has  dropped.  Her  step  is  not  as 
elastic  nor  her  spirit  as  buoyant  as  once  it  was. 
We  have  become  prosaic,  lethargic.  We  have 
lost  that  fine  flavour  of  our  early  rapture. 
There  are  very  few  enthusiasts  any  more,  few 
flashing  eyes  and  burning  hearts.  We  are  so 
strangely  afraid  of  demonstration!  We  are 
bashful  even  about  telling  our  friends  how 
much  we  think  of  them.  So  we  keep  our  lips 
closed.  When  John  Foster's  son  was  dying, 
he  told  his  father  that  it  was  only  within  the 
last  few  days  that  he  had  any  conception  how 
much  his  father  loved  him. 

And  yet  we  love  our  Master,  and  call  our- 
selves His  followers.     We  sing,  "  My  Jesus, 


COMFORT  AND  ENTHUSIASM    125 

I  love  Thee."  Why,  then,  have  we  drifted  asea 
so  far?  The  answer,  I  take  it,  is  not  hard  to 
find,  and  it  is  threefold.  Our  Lord  said  con- 
cerning the  coming  of  the  Spirit,  "  When  He 
is  come  He  will  convict  the  world  in  respect 
of  sin  and  of  righteousness  and  of  judgment." 
Is  not  this  the  crying  need  of  the  Church  to- 
day ?  Do  we  not  need  a  fresh  and  virgin  con- 
ception of  sin,  of  righteousness,  and  of  judg- 
ment ?  Aye,  verily,  of  a  truth  we  do.  When 
we  have  it,  then  we  will  have  enthusiasm,  then 
our  hearts  will  burn,  then  our  bones  will  wax 
warm,  then  our  tongues  will  be  on  fire. 

"  Come,  Holy  Spirit,  Heavenly  Dove, 
With  all  Thy  quickening  powers  ; 
Kindle  a  flame  of  sacred  love 
In  these  cold  hearts  of  ours." 

I.  SIN 

We  need  to  look  upon  sin  as  sin.  We  need 
to  learn  anew  its  enormity.  We  need  to  get 
back  to  the  old  Westminster  definition,  "  Sin  is 
any  want  of  conformity  unto  or  transgression 
of  the  law  of  God."  Time  was  when  sin  was 
an  ugly  thing.  No  negative  illusion  was  it;  it 
was  a  positive  reality.  Things  were  black  or 
they  were  white.  Wrong  was  wrong  and  right 
was  right.  There  was  a  clear  dividing  line. 
To-day  the  line  is  indistict.  Things  have 
shaded  off  into  a  dim  and  neutral  drab.    Sin, 


126        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

we  are  told,  is  the  shadow  where  the  light 
ought  to  be. 

How  often  we  read  in  Scripture  of  the 
Master's  being  moved  with  compassion! 
*'  When  He  saw  the  multitudes  He  was 
moved."  Never  was  there  more  illuminative 
sentence;  never  more  extensive  sentence.  Not 
simply  touched  with  compassion,  not  the  sur- 
face of  His  nature  rippled.  He  was  stirred 
through  and  through.  His  whole  inner  life 
was  shaken  and  swept  as  by  a  storm.  Jesus 
makes  us  conscious  of  the  "still  sad  music  of 
humanity."  A  great  multitude  of  people  is 
ever  a  moving  sight.  Here  are  tired  forms  and 
anxious  faces.  Some  are  heavy,  some  are 
care-worn,  some  are  weary.  If  there  is  the 
spring  of  youth,  there  is  the  winter  of  age.  A 
throng  of  people  is  a  fine  study  in  comedy. 
Man,  it  is  a  finer  study  in  tragedy.  And  what 
was  it  that  moved  Jesus  ?  He  was  moved,  we 
are  told,  because  He  saw  the  people  as  sheep, 
having  no  shepherd.  Sheep  going  astray! 
Poor  silly  sheep,  that  had  lost  their  way, 
missed  the  road,  the  mark,  the  goal.  St.  Luke 
tells  us  that,  "  When  He  drew  nigh  He  saw 
the  city  and  wept  over  it."  Strange  paren- 
thesis this!  It  was  the  day  of  His  triumph; 
it  was  Palm  Sunday.  The  crowds  were  cheer- 
ing and  strewing  flowers  in  His  way.     But 


COMFORT  AND  ENTHUSIASM    127 

above  all  the  cheers  and  songs  of  the  people, 
one  can  hear  the  sobs  of  the  Christ.  Jeru- 
salem, remember,  was  a  beautiful  city. 
*'  Beautiful  for  situation,  the  joy  of  the  whole 
earth,  is  Mount  Zion."  It  had  a  temple  that 
had  been  forty-and-six  years  in  building,  and 
was  one  of  the  most  magnificent  buildings 
ever  designed  by  man.  It  had  a  palace  for 
the  King  and  another  for  the  high  priest.  It 
had  a  grand  theatre  and  a  wonderful  hippo- 
drome. It  had  three  historic  towers  and  an 
acropolis.  But  these  things  seem  not  to  have 
caught  the  eye  of  Jesus.  "  When  He  beheld 
the  city,  He  wept  over  it,"  is  the  brief  and 
pregnant  commentary.  Is  there  a  more  touch- 
ing picture  anywhere?  Behold  the  Lord  of 
glory  standing  there  on  Olivet,  and  looking 
down  upon  the  city  He  loved  with  tearful  eye. 
And  what  was  it,  pray,  that  made  Him  weep? 
Hearken!  Because  they  knew  not  the  things 
that  belonged  to  their  peace.  "  Oh !  Jerusalem, 
Jerusalem,  how  often  would  I  have  gathered 
thy  children."  What  made  Him  weep?  Her 
children.  He  saw  the  people  He  came  to  save; 
saw  them  sinning  against  light,  saw  their  folly, 
their  madness,  their  doom,  and  seeing  this,  He 
wept. 

Friend,  has  sin  ever  caused  you  a  sigh,  a 
sob?    Has  it  ever  worried  you?    Has  it  ever 


1^8        'A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

discomforted  you  ?  Has  it  ever  provoked  you 
to  tears  ?  We  weep  over  sorrow,  over  business 
failure,  over  disappointment,  over  broken 
hope.  Not  so  Jesus!  Never  once  did  Jesus 
weep  over  sorrow  or  failure  or  broken  hope. 
He  wept  at  the  grave  of  Lazarus,  but  that  was 
out  of  sympathy  for  the  sisters.  That  men 
should  miss  their  way  in  life  and  go  astray 
was  the  tragical  thing  to  Jesus.  In  the  phi- 
losophy of  Jesus  there  is  but  one  mistake,  sin; 
there  is  but  one  evil,  sin ;  there  is  but  one  weep- 
ing matter,  sin.  Nothing  can  harm  a  life  but 
sin.  Oh!  if  we  but  saw  sin  as  Jesus  sees  it, 
we  too  would  weep,  we  would  be  kindled  with 
a  living  flame,  our  hearts  would  bum  within 
us,  our  feelings  would  be  wrung  with  the 
shock  of  some  great  sorrow,  and  pain  would 
pass  into  the  outlet  of  tears.  A  bishop  of  the 
Methodist  Church  said  recently,  "  We  have 
enough  organisation  to  run  not  only  our  own 
church  but  every  church  on  this  continent. 
We  have  enough  wealth  and  enough  workers 
to  shake  the  country  from  end  to  end;  but  we 
haven't  enough  compassion  to  run  a  confer- 


II.  RIGHTEOUSNESS 

So  tolerant  of  evil  have  we  become  that  we 
have  grown  well-nigh  indifferent  to  righteous- 


COMFORT  AND  ENTHUSIASM    129 

ness.  We  are  like  the  poor  lost  unfortunates 
of  the  underworld.  Constant  intercourse  with 
wickedness  has  stolen  away  all  sense  of  shame; 
so  we  in  our  daily  taction  with  sin  have  be- 
come over-familiar,  and  in  consequence  more 
or  less  calloused  to  loveliness  and  virtue.  There 
is  a  partial  benumbment.  Would  it  not  be  well 
for  us  to  think  less  of  laxity  and  more  of 
virtue,  less  of  ugliness  and  more  of  beauty? 
The  apostle  does  not  say,  Whatsoever  things 
are  morbid,  whatsoever  things  are  gruesome, 
whatsoever  things  are  revolting,  think  on  these 
things;  not  at  all.  Think  on  the  excellent;  it 
will  uplift,  inspire,  enthuse. 

There  is  a  phrase  in  the  Psalms  that  is  very 
choice :  "  Oh,  worship  the  Lord,  in  the  beauty 
of  holiness.*'  Is  that  not  what  we  need  to- 
day? Do  we  not  need  to  see  more  and  more 
the  beauty  of  holiness,  the  attractiveness  of 
holiness,  the  charm  of  holiness?  Indeed,  are 
we  not  a  little  afraid  of  the  word?  Verily, 
we  are.  We  would  be  good,  but  not  too  good. 
We  would  be  holy,  but  not  too  holy.  We 
would  have  religion,  but  not  too  much  religion. 
We  would  be  on  the  safe  side  of  things,  but  we 
dread  being  labelled  extremists,  fanatics. 
Now  holiness  is  simply  that  of  which  right- 
eousness is  the  expression.  Holiness  is  the 
root,   righteousness  the  fruit.     The  Hebrew 


130        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

word  for  holiness  means  clean,  from  which  it 
comes  to  imply  set  apart.  Any  vessel  set  apart 
for  a  religious  use  in  the  temple  must  be  clean. 
Then  all  such  vessels  came  to  be  called  holy 
vessels.  This  was  their  exclusive  use.  They 
were  set  apart.  The  men,  too,  who  handled 
these  vessels  must  be  clean,  clean  of  lip,  clean 
of  life.  "  Be  ye  clean,  ye  that  bear  the  ves- 
sels of  the  Lord."  A  holy  man  is  the  exclu- 
sive property  of  God.  He  is  willing  to  be  used 
by  God.  Every  student  of  Anglo-Saxon  is 
aware  of  the  fact  that  holiness  is  the  same 
word  as  wholeness,  completeness;  this  too  hav- 
ing the  same  root  as  our  word  healthiness. 
We  speak  about  healthy  bodies.  All  are  en- 
thusiastic for  that.  No  one  covets  disease  in 
his  body.  Why  should  we  not  be  equally  am- 
bitious for  healthy  minds  and  healthy  souls? 
Sometimes  in  sooth  one  almost  wishes  that  the 
words  holy  and  pious  might  for  a  decade  or 
two  remain  obsolete.  Holiness  is  becoming 
synonymous  with  saintliness.  Piety  is  apt  to 
mean  pietism,  and  this  not  infrequently  wears 
a  mask.  Let  us  just  say,  good  men.  Who  is 
the  good  man?  The  good  man  is  he  who  is 
living  in  the  fear  of  God  and  in  the  love  of 
his  fellows.  The  good  man  is  he  who  feels 
that  the  first  thing  to  be  is  to  be  clean,  and 
that  the  first  thing  to  do  is  to  do  right.     The 


COMFORT  AND  ENTHUSIASM    131 

good  man  is  willing  to  die  poor,  if  God  wills  it 
so.  He  will  consider  the  White  House  a  failure 
if  God  does  not  call  him  there.  The  good 
man  is  trying  to  make  it  easier  for  everybody 
else  to  be  good.  Alexander  Pope  said,  and 
Bums  echoed  the  saying,  "  An  honest  man's 
the  noblest  work  of  God."  No,  no!  This 
palm  is  for  the  good  man.  A  good  man's  the 
noblest  work  of  God.  Jesus  Christ  came  into 
this  world  to  help  men  to  be  good.  He  has 
done  it.  He  is  doing  it  every  day.  He  is 
helping  men  to  that  lofty  accomplishment.  As 
Mrs.  Alexander  writes : 

"  He  died  that  we  might  be  forgiven; 
He  died  to  make  us  good. 

There  was  none  other  good  enough." 

Is  not  this  the  purpose  for  which  the  Church 
exists  ?  No  man  should  ever  leave  these  walls 
without  feeling  in  his  heart  of  hearts,  *'  I 
would  that  I  were  a  good  man."  Let  us  cul- 
tivate enthusiasm  for  simple  goodness.  Good- 
ness is  not  a  negative  virtue.  A  good  man 
is  not  a  harmless,  colourless  creature.  Full  oft 
we  think  of  goodness  as  something  merely 
graceful  and  pretty,  but  not  robust.  We  call 
it  the  religion  of  the  beautiful  soul.  When 
the  bishop  was  examining  a  group  of  candi- 
dates for  orders,  he  asked  them,  "Are  you 


132        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

willing  to  be  a  nobody  in  Christ's  service?" 
And  every  last  one  of  them  said,  "  Yes/' 
"  Then  you're  a  poor  lot,"  exclaimed  the 
bishop.  The  bishop  was  right.  Goodness  is 
not  the  grace  of  the  old  hymn  which  would  bid 
us  be  nothing,  "only  to  lie  at  His  feet."  It  is 
not  a  broken  and  emptied  vessel.  That  is  sim- 
ply preparatory.  It  is  the  blessedness  of  the 
child  who  hungers  and  thirsts  after  righteous- 
ness. It  is  the  shining  glory  of  the  faithful 
who  would  be  filled  with  the  fulness  of  God. 

III.  JUDGMENT 

Our  lukewarmness  is  due  largely  further- 
more to  our  lack  of  a  living  faith.  There  is 
scepticism  abroad  to-day.  The  air  is  poisoned 
with  the  germs  of  doubt.  Nothing  chills 
enthusiasm  like  doubt.  The  author  of  He- 
brews says,  "  lest  any  of  you  be  hardened 
through  the  deceit  fulness  of  sin."  And  what 
sin  is  it  to  which  he  refers?  Go  back  to  the 
verse  preceding.  "  Take  heed,  brethren,  lest 
haply  there  shall  be  in  any  one  of  you  an  evil 
heart  of  unbelief."  The  sin  is  that  of  unbe- 
lief. It  is  unbelief  that  hardens.  Unbelief 
has  a  chilling,  deadening,  hardening  effect. 
Christianity  came  into  the  world  singing,  not 
sighing,  and  it  has  been  singing  ever  since. 
Unbelief  never  sings.     Unbelief  is  a  sob,  a 


COMFORT  AND  ENTHUSIASM    133 

sigh,  a  groan.  Only  faith  sings.  I  should  as 
soon  think  of  singing  a  table  of  logarithms  as 
of  singing  the  good  news  of  materialistic  mon- 
ism. "  When  He  the  Spirit  of  truth  has  come, 
He  will  convict.'*  And  is  it  not  convictions  we 
need?  We  have  opinions  enough  nowadays. 
What  we  need  is  convictions.  A  conviction 
is  something  that  makes  a  convict  of  us.  No 
man  will  die  for  an  opinion.  Hundreds  have 
died  for  a  conviction.  Rabelais  called  eter- 
nity the  "  grand  perhaps."  No  one  will  suffer 
for  a  perhaps,  be  it  never  so  grand.  Did 
not  our  hearts  burn  within  us  ?  When  ?  As  He 
talked  to  us  by  the  way.  What  about  ?  About 
the  Scriptures!  About  the  resurrection  life. 
"  Behooved  it  not  the  Christ  to  suffer  these 
things  and  to  enter  into  His  glory  ?  "  "  Then 
opened  He  their  mind  that  they  might  under- 
stand the  Scriptures;  and  He  said  unto  them. 
Thus  is  it  written  that  the  Christ  should  suffer 
and  rise  again  from  the  dead  the  third  day, 
and  that  repentance  and  remission  of  sins 
should  be  preached  in  His  name  unto  all  the 
nations,  beginning  from  Jerusalem." 

Henry  Drummond  once  said  that  most  of 
the  difficulties  of  trying  to  live  the  Christian 
life  arose  from  trying  to  half  live  it.  If  you 
burn  oil  in  your  furnace,  you  know  how  dif- 
ficult it  is  to  keep  a  little  fire  a-going;  it  is  so  apt 


134        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

to  die  out !  The  big  blaze  keeps  itself,  but  the 
little  one  needs  constant  watching.  The  great 
thing  about  Christianity  is  its  bigness.  I  be- 
lieve in  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  That 
is  a  colossal  belief.  I  believe  in  the  life  eternal. 
That  is  mountainous,  Alpine.  I  believe  in  the 
forgiveness  of  sins.  How  is  it  possible  for 
one  to  hold  to  such  a  cathedral  faith  and  not 
be  thrilled  to  his  fingertips  ? 

Quite  recently  it  was  my  privilege  to  meet 
one  of  these  disillusioned  men  we  call  pessi- 
mists and  he  said  to  me,  "  You're  a  minister; 
are  you  interested  in  people?"  "Why,  yes," 
I  said.  "  Well,  I  am  not,"  he  made  answer, 
"  I  have  lost  all  interest  in  men;  I  do  not  seem 
to  care  for  anything  any  more.  A  good  din- 
ner and  a  smoke  are  about  the  only  things 
left."  "  Oh !  man  alive,"  I  said,  ''  you  are 
surely  joking."  ''  No,"  he  interrupted,  "  I  am 
not;  I  am  sick  and  tired  of  everything."  He 
was  a  professor  in  one  of  our  colleges.  He 
was  sick  of  his  calling.  He  was  tired  of  his 
books.  Society  bored  him.  Religion  muddled 
him.  Politics  disgusted  him.  The  stainless 
flowers  rebuked  him.  Even  the  laughter  of 
little  children  seemed  to  grate  on  him.  Life's 
bright  candles  had  all  burned  low  and 
were  smoking.  Oh!  sad  state!  tragedy  of 
tragedies!    That  life  should  lose  all  power  to 


COMFORT  AND  ENTHUSIASM    135 

interest!  That  the  heart  should  grow  so  dull 
and  dead  and  passionless  as  only  to  be  stirred 
into  heat  and  flame  and  glow  by  the  thought 
of  a  good  dinner  or  a  smoke!  How  griev- 
ous the  discord  that  comes  from  the  per- 
version of  nature's  laws.  To  the  healthy  body 
food  is  pleasurable,  but  to  the  dyspeptic  it  is 
an  irritation.  Imagine  a  scholar  not  being  in- 
terested in  the  British  Museum.  Conceive,  if 
you  can,  a  student  of  Shakespeare  not  being 
interested  in  Stratford.  Can  it  be  possible  that 
a  dying  man  has  lost  all  interest  in  the  here- 
after? If  Dean  Swift  could  get  demonstra- 
tive over  a  broomstick,  can  we  not  become 
intense  over  an  immortal  soul?  Whoever 
Jesus  is,  He  is  interesting,  tremendously  so. 
His  life  is  interesting,  His  sayings  are  inter- 
esting. His  theology  is  interesting.  His  es- 
chatology  is  interesting.  *'  In  my  Father's 
house  are  many  mansions;  if  it  were  not  so, 
I  would  have  told  you;  I  go  to  prepare  a  place 
for  you.  And  if  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for 
you,  I  will  come  again  and  receive  you  unto 
Myself,  that  where  I  am,  there  ye  may  be 
also."  That  at  least  is  interesting,  I  claim. 
Is  it  not  worth  a  little  fire,  a  little  fervour? 
Remember,  too,  that  we  are  to  live  the  eternal 
life  now,  here.  We  can  fall  in  love  with  good- 
ness  to-day.      Love    is   the   best   thing   that 


136        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

heaven  has  to  offer  and  love  fits  earth  just  as 
nicely  as  heaven.  The  blacksmith  puts  his 
strength  into  the  stroke.  The  bee  puts  its  life 
into  the  sting.  The  Christian  puts  his  heart 
into  the  struggle. 

Believing  these  things,  how  strange  that  the 
Church  should  be  calm  and  cool  and  tem- 
perate; that  her  mercury  should  so  rarely  rise 
to  blood-heat;  that  it  should  more  often  be 
found  hovering  round  the  zero  point!  Is  it 
not  indeed  surpassing  strange?  What  a  star- 
tling saying  that  was  of  one  of  the  greatest 
criminals  of  the  last  century.  His  name  was 
Charles  Peace.  He  was  on  his  way  to  the  scaf- 
fold and  the  chaplain  was  offering  to  him  the 
consolations  of  religion.  The  wretched  man 
turned  and  said,  "  If  I  believed  what  you  say, 
I  would  crawl  across  England  on  broken  glass 
on  my  hands  and  knees  to  tell  men  it  was  true." 
But  we  believe  these  things.  At  least  we  say 
we  do.  Let  us  cultivate  more  the  enthusiastic 
impulse.  Let  us  begin  to  live  our  religion  with 
a  relish.  "  Search  the  Scriptures;"  not  sim- 
ply read,  search.  Pray.  Pray  without  ceasing. 
It  is  not  prayer,  but  persistent  prayer,  that 
prevails.  "  The  effectual  fervent  prayer  of  the 
righteous  man  availeth  much."  The  seal  on 
Dr.  Adam  Clarke's  grave  is  interesting;  a 
candle  burned  down  to  its  socket  and  under- 


COMFORT  AND  ENTHUSIASM    137 

neath  these  words,  "  In  living  for  others  I  am 
burned  away."  Some  may  wish  to  shine  but 
not  to  burn.  The  will-o'-the-wisp  shines  with- 
out burning,  but  it  is  a  false  light.  Every  true 
light  must  needs  burn  if  it  would  shine.  The 
preacher  is  a  herald  with  a  tremor  in  his  voice, 
a  live  coal  on  his  tongue.  Garlyle's  last  mes- 
sage, whispered  to  a  friend,  was,  "  Give  your- 
self royally!"  Aristotle  said,  "No  great 
genius  was  ever  without  some  admixture  of 
madness."  '*  The  bridge  over  which  the  Church 
has  crossed  to  victory  has  always  been  the 
body  of  a  fanatic."  It  was  not  polished,  erudite 
Erasmus,  but  rough,  red-hot  Martin  Luther, 
that  made  Germany.  Among  the  words  of 
Joseph  Parker  in  his  last  sermon  in  the  City 
Temple  are  these :  "  As  long  as  the  Church  of 
God  is  one  of  many  institutions  she  will  have 
her  little  day.  She  will  die,  and  that  will  be 
all;  but  just  as  soon  as  she  gets  the  spirit  of 
Jesus  Christ,  until  the  world  thinks  she  has 
gone  stark  mad,  then  we  shall  be  on  the  high- 
road to  capturing  this  planet  for  Jesus  Christ." 
So  let  us  hear  once  more  the  secret  of  this  con- 
quering and  quickening  possession,  this  kin- 
dling Pentecostal  baptism.  "  When  He  is  come 
He  will  convict  the  world  in  respect  of  sin,  of 
righteousness,  and  of  judgment."  This  He 
spake    of    the    Spirit,    the    Comforter,    the 


138        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

Strengthener !  The  root  idea  of  comfort  is 
not  weakness  but  strength.  The  work  of  the 
Spirit  is  to  guide,  to  teach,  to  fortify,  to  make 
strong,  to  put  into  us  the  iron  of  conviction,  the 
stir  of  a  loving  and  gracious  enthusiasm. 


COMFORT  BY  BEHOLDING 


COMFORT   BY   BEHOLDING 

"  They  looked  unto   Him    and  were    lightened." — 
Psalm  34  : 5. 

THAT  searching  genius,  Nathaniel 
Hawthorne,  has  a  story  called  "  The 
Great  Stone  Face.''  The  "Great 
Stone  Face  "  was  a  work  of  nature,  cut  on  the 
sloping  crest  of  a  mountain  by  huge  rocks; 
these  rocks  having  been  thrown  together  by 
some  volcanic  disturbance,  and  thrown  in  such 
a  way  that  when  viewed  from  a  distance  they 
resembled  the  features  of  the  human  face.  It 
seemed  as  if  some  mighty  ponderous  giant 
had,  in  the  cooling  age,  imprinted  his  likeness 
on  the  cliff.  There  was  the  broad  arch  of  the 
forehead,  the  nose  with  its  long  bridge,  and  the 
thick  lips  which,  could  they  have  spoken, 
would  have  rolled  their  thunder  accents  sten- 
toriously  adown  the  canon.  And  it  was  not 
a  harsh  outline,  either.  All  the  features, 
though  on  such  a  massive  mould,  were  noble, 
and  the  whole  expression  kindly  and  sweet. 
It  seemed  as  if  the  glow  of  a  warm,  roomy 
heart  were  lighting  up  the  countenance,  and 
making  it  beam  with  tenderness  and  pity;  as  if 
some  aged  patriarch,  full  of  the  milk  of  human 
141 


142        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

kindness,  were  looking  down  upon  the  simple 
villagers  in  the  valley  and  wishing  them  well. 

Now  there  was  a  lad  grew  up  in  that  valley 
whose  name  was  Ernest.  With  his  mother 
he  lived  in  a  little  log-hut,  encircled  by  this 
family  of  lofty  mountain  ranges.  The  first 
thing  Ernest  saw  in  the  morning  and  the  last 
thing  he  saw  at  night  was  the  Great  Stone 
Face.  He  loved  to  go  apart  and  gaze  and 
meditate  upon  the  winsome  features.  Often, 
with  book  in  hand,  would  he  stroll  off  and  sit 
on  the  bank  of  the  wild  rivulet  that  came  tum- 
bling down  from  its  birthplace  in  the  heart  of 
the  hills,  but  the  book  almost  always  lost  its 
interest.  Unconsciously  his  eye  would  be 
lifted  to  drink  in  the  message  of  the  strange 
Titanic  visage  that  ever  seemed  to  smile  on  him 
with  gracious  encouragement.  In  fact,  Ernest 
grew  to  almost  love,  if  that  were  possible,  the 
mighty  mountain  image.  The  look  he  gave  it 
was  one  of  well-nigh  veneration.  His  was  a 
tender  and  confiding  nature  anyway,  and  the 
giant  veteran,  like  some  mighty  guardian  angel, 
seemed  to  carry  a  continual  secret  for  the  child. 

And  so  the  years  hurried  along.  As  they 
flew  by  and  dropped  white  hairs  upon  the  head 
of  Ernest,  and  he  was  now  becoming  an  old 
man,  it  was  noted  by  the  people  of  the  valley 
that  he  had  grown  into  the  likeness  of  the 
sculptured  cliff.    A  mild  evening  light  had  crept 


COMPORT  BY  BEHOLDING       143 

into  his  eye.  Poets  and  philosophers,  college 
professors  and  statesmen  and  sages  came  from 
far  and  near  to  see  him.  And  when  they  took 
their  leave  and  passed  up  the  roadway,  and 
were  about  to  be  lost  in  the  dim  distance,  they 
would  pause  to  gaze  once  more  upon  the  Great 
Stone  Face,  and,  as  they  gazed,  they  would  say, 
"How  wonderful  this!"  "What  a  perfect 
likeness !  "  "  What  a  strange  phenomenon !  " 
But  why  strange?  Is  not  Science  preach- 
ing this  truth  to-day  with  force  and  accept- 
ance? There  is  a  moral  and  spiritual  climate 
as  well  as  a  physical  one.  Buckle,  in  his  "  His- 
tory of  Civilization,"  says  that  he  can  tell  the 
character  and  history  of  a  people  if  he  knows 
their  language  and  food  and  atmospheric  con- 
ditions. They  make  the  race  physiognomy, 
he  claims.  To  be  always  using  certain  muscles 
of  sound  tells  ultimately  on  the  expressional 
result.  Charles  Kingsley  has  a  sentence  some- 
where to  the  effect  that  the  soul  secretes  the 
body  just  as  a  crustacean  secretes  its  shell; 
which  is  the  scientific  language  of  a  theologian. 
Carnal  men  take  on  the  fleshly  imprint,  while 
saintly  St.  Theresa's  features  grow  to  fit  her 
own  "  Treatise  on  Prayer."  And  the  passage 
of  Scripture  selected  for  our  study  is  inform- 
ing because  it  teaches  that  a  like  truth  works 
so  efBciently  in  the  sphere  of  the  spirit. 
"  They  looked  unto  Him  and  were  lightened." 


144        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

"  They  looked  unto  Him  and  were  radiant," 
the  Revised  Version  translates.  Radiant! 
made  light!  not  light  in  opposition  to  heavy; 
light  in  opposition  to  dark.  They  looked  unto 
Him  and  were  lightened,  brightened.  By  look- 
ing unto  Him  their  faces  grew  resplendent. 
Just  as  the  Great  Stone  Face  influenced  Er- 
nest, so  He  will  influence  us.  However  clouded 
and  shadowed  our  lives  may  be,  they  may  be- 
come soft  and  radiant  with  the  glory  of  His 
presence.  *'  In  Thy  presence  is  fulness  of  joy; 
in  Thy  right  hand  there  are  pleasures  forever- 
more." 

So  the  Christian  life  is  here  represented  in 
three  stages : 

(i)  As  a  looking  life. 

(2)  As  a  lighted  life. 

(3)  As  a  luminous  life. 

You  will  observe  that  one  follows  the  other 
in  resultant  sequence.  By  looking  to  the  great 
Original  Source  of  all  brightness  our  own 
lamps  will  be  lighted  and  then  become  lumi- 
nous themselves.  "  Now  are  ye  light  in  the 
Lord."  First,  then,  it  is  a  looking  Hfe.  "  They 
looked  unto  Him."  Him  refers  to  Jehovah  in 
the  verse  preceding.  But  we  cannot  look  upon 
Jehovah.  We  should  be  blinded  by  the  glare 
of  Godhead.  No  mortal  eye  can  fix  its  gaze 
upon  the  sun.  The  only  way  to  see  God  is 
through  a  medium.  "  No  man  hath  seen  God  at 


COMFORT  BY  BEHOLDING       145 

any  time;  the  only  begotten  Son  who  is  in  the 
bosom  of  the  Father,  He  hath  declared  Him.*' 
Not  infrequently  in  Scripture  the  Christian 
life  is  represented  as  a  life  of  looking — look- 
ing for  help,  looking  for  pardon,  looking  for 
inspiration,  looking  for  power.  "  Look  unto  y 
Me  and  be  ye  saved,  all  the  ends  of  the  earth." 
"  Run  with  patience  the  race  that  is  set  before  ^ 
you,  looking  unto  Jesus."  "  We  look  not  at 
the  things  which  are  seen,  but  at  the  things  *^ 
which  are  not  seen."  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  / 
God,  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world." 
Behold !  It  is  a  life  of  beholding,  the  looking 
away  of  the  soul  by  faith,  faith  being  the  eye 
of  the  soul.  Of  course,  looking  implies  atten- 
tion, keenness  of  perception.  It  is  no  snatch 
glance,  no  passing  nod.  It  is  a  fixed  and  eager 
gaze.  It  is  a  trained  faculty.  "  Looking  unto 
Jesus,"  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  writes :  literally  "  looking  away  unto 
Jesus";  shutting  out  the  world  entirely.  It  is 
so  much  easier  to  overlook  than  to  look;  so 
much  easier  to  look  than  to  see.  The  Master 
does  not  say  "  look  at  the  lily,"  but  "  consider 
the  lily."  Look  into  it;  observe  well.  The 
first  business  of  the  sinner  is  not  with  himself,  X 
but  with  his  Lord.  Look  not  to  self :  look  to 
Him.  Look  not  within ;  look  without.  "  Be- 
lieve on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  Turn  your 
eye  to  the  cross.    "  As  Moses  lifted  up  the  ser-_ 


146        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

pent  in  the  wilderness,  even  so  must  the  Son 
of  Man  be  Hfted  up,  that  whosoever  believeth 
may  in  Him  have  eternal  Hfe."  We  must  look 
to  Christ  for  our  salvation.  We  must  avoid 
all  morbid  introspection.  If  there  is  anything 
not  altogether  right  in  our  hearts,  we  must 
turn  away  therefrom.  For  no  one  ever  looked 
to  the  Saviour  with  a  saving  faith  who  did  not 
at  the  same  time  look  with  pain  and  sorrow 
upon  his  own  sin-possessed  nature. 

Then,  too,  it  is  a  lighted  life.  "  The  spirit  of 
man  is  the  candle  of  the  Lord,"  wrote  Solomon. 
God's  life  is  the  living  flame,  the  vital  principle. 
Our  lives  are  the  inflammable  tapers  which  He 
touches.  Some  candles  may  be  brighter  than 
others.  Some  are  dim,  some  are  brilliant. 
There  are  great  lamps  and  little  lamps  all  about 
us,  but  whoever  has  in  him  the  human  quality 
may  become  glorious  with  the  shining  of  God. 

This  is  the  mystery  of  conversion.  Con- 
version is  not  new  truth  discovered;  it  is  a 
man's  unlighted  nature  lifted  up  and  respond- 
ing to  the  Divine  spark.  *'  I  am  come  a  light 
into  the  world,"  said  Jesus.  "  In  Him  was 
life  and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men."  Hutton, 
in  his  book  on  Robert  Browning,  tells  of  a 
bombshell  now  used  in  war.  The  uniqueness 
of  the  shell  is  that  it  explodes  at  the  instant 
touch  of  light.  And  that  he  claims  is  Brown- 
ing's conception  of  the  new  birth.    The  soul  is 


COMFORT  BY  BEHOLDING       147 

dull,  dark,  dead,  yet  waiting  for  the  touch  of 
God's  light  to  make  it  leap  into  living  bright- 
ness. In  Lockhart's  Life  of  Scott  there  is  a 
story  told  of  the  first  time  the  two  men  met. 
It  was  at  a  gathering  of  friends  in  Edinburgh. 
One  of  the  number  was  regretting  that  he  had 
never  seen  Byron,  at  which  Scott  commenced 
to  enthuse  on  the  beauty  of  the  poet's  face. 
**  Doctor,"  he  said,  "  the  prints  give  you  no 
idea  of  it;  the  lustre  is  there,  but  it  is  not 
lighted  up."  The  unconverted  man  is  the  man 
whose  lustre  is  unlighted.  Conversion  is  the 
lighting  up  of  our  lustre  with  the  torch  of 
God's  Holy  Spirit.  This,  too,  is  the  mystery 
of  inspiration — some  lofty  spiritual  genius 
burning  with  the  light  of  God  and  shedding 
illumination  on  the  hidden  secrets  of  a  dark- 
ened world.  But  the  point  is  that  the  poorest, 
most  unlikely  life  is  a  candle,  and  may  at  any 
time  flash  forth  with  the  warm,  pure,  white 
flame  of  heavenly  splendor.  When  MacKay  of 
Uganda  was  a  lad  at  school  in  Aberdeen,  his  dy- 
ing mother  sent  him  as  a  last  word  this  message : 
"  Read  your  Bible  and  search  it,  Alec  dear,  so 
that  you  may  meet  me  in  glory."  His  biographer 
goes  on  to  add  how  this  little  message  "  kindled 
a  light  which  waxed  brighter  and  brighter  un- 
til it  illumined  his  whole  career." 

Now   the   psalm   from   which   our  text   is 
taken,  it  is  well  to  observe,  is  a  psalm  of  wor- 


148        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

ship.  "  I  will  bless  Jehovah  at  all  times.  His 
praise  shall  continually  be  in  my  mouth.  My 
soul  shall  make  her  boast  in  Jehovah.  Oh, 
magnify  Jehovah  with  me  and  let  us  exalt  His 
name  together.  I  sought  Jehovah  and  He 
answered  me  and  delivered  me  from  all  my 
fears."     The  psalm,  I  repeat,  is  a  psalm  of 

(worship.  The  look  is  the  look  of  faith  and 
adoration.  And  worship,  be  it  noted,  changes 
character.  We  cannot  worship  anything  with- 
r  out  its  reacting  upon  us,  and  influencing  us. 
Worship  is  a  matter  of  ideals,  and  is  it  not  an 
X  old  story  that  we  all  grow  into  the  likeness  of 
our  ideals  ?  Tell  me,  young  friend,  what  your 
ideals  are,  and  I  will  tell  you  what  sooner  or 
later  you  will  be.  That  is  an  infallible  index. 
Tell  me  your  love,  and  I  will  read  the  riddle  of 
your  life.  Tell  me  your  wish,  and  I  will  write 
the  history  of  your  soul.  \i  man  ever  becomes 
great,  it  will  be  by  worshipping  great  things. 
If  he  becomes  mean  and  unworthy,  it  will  be 
by  worshipping  mean  and  unworthy  things. 
Great  is  the  power  of  worship!  A  low  con- 
ception of  God  will  issue  in  a  low  life.  An 
exalted  conception  will  show  itself  in  an  exalted 
life.  The  African  savage  pictures  God  as  a 
fetich,  hence  the  degradation  of  his  morals. 
Professor  Seeley,  in  his  "  Natural  Religion," 
begins  with  the  definition  that  religion  in  its 
root  idea  is  admiration.     There  is,  it  would 


COMFORT  BY  BEHOLDING       149 

seem,  a  looseness  of  language  in  the  definition, 
inasmuch  as  admiration  is  not  adoration.  It  is 
not  necessarily  religious  to  admire  a  beautiful 
landscape  and  we  surely  cannot  be  said  to  adore 
it.  When,  however,  through  the  admiration  of 
the  work,  we  are  led  to  adore  the  Worker — 
then  this  is  religion. 

Among  some  Eastern  nations  it  is  a  courtesy 
that  if  a  guest  admires  anything  in  the  home 
of  the  host,   the  host  gives   it  him.     So   of 
worship.     What  we   worship   is   ours.      The 
child  leaps  up  when  it  beholds  a  rainbow  in 
the  sky.     Henceforth  the  rainbow  belongs  to 
the  child.    Nothing  can  steal  the  strip  of  beauty 
out  of  his  heart.     We  are  in  God's  dwelling, 
His  guests.     He  says :     "  What  you  love  is 
yours."     Pity  the  man  who  has  nothing  toj 
admire  !    Ruskin  says  that  people  living  in  a! 
modest  house  who  enjoy  and  admire  Warwick 
Castle  are  so  much  better  off  than  they  who,  i 
living  in  Warwick   Castle,   have  nothing  to  1 
admire.    He  who  has  lost  his  love  for  poetry,  * 
or  harmony,  or  beauty,  of  him  we  may  say  that 
"  Virtue  has  gone  out  of  him."    If  you  take  a 
magnet  and  draw  it  through  the  sand,  out  will 
come  the  iron  filings.    There  are  some  natures 
that   are  magnets.       They   call   out   the  bad 
that  is  in  you.    Others  there  are  that  provoke 
the  good  that  is  dormant.     When  you  have 
been  with  them  for  a  while  you  feel  finer  for 


150        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

the  interview.  If  you  sound  a  note  on  an 
instrument  in  your  room,  every  other  instru- 
ment in  the  room  will  tremble  to  its  tone. 
Stanley  confessed  with  gratitude  that  it  was 
Livingston's  influence  that  changed  his  life. 
Listen  to  his  words  :  "  In  187 1  I  went  to 
Africa  as  prejudiced  against  religion  as  the 
worst  infidel  in  London.  To  a  reporter  like 
myself,  who  had  only  to  deal  with  wars,  mass 
meetings,  and  political  gatherings,  sentimental 
matters  were  quite  out  of  my  province.  But 
there  came  to  me  a  long  time  for  reflection.  I 
was  out  there,  away  from  a  worldly  world.  I 
saw  this  solitary  old  man,  and  I  asked  myself,- 
'  Why  does  he  stop  here  ?  What  is  it  that 
inspires  him?'  For  months  after  we  met 
I  found  myself  listening  to  him,  wondering  at 
the  old  man  carrying  out  the  words,  *  Leave 
all,  and  follow  Me.'  But  little  by  little,  seeing 
his  piety,  his  gentleness,  his  zeal,  his  earnest- 
ness, and  how  he  went  quietly  about  his  busi- 
ness, I  was  converted  by  him,  although  he  had 
not  tried  to  do  it." 

"  '  Oh,  Friend,*  my  bosom  said, 
'  Through  thee  alone  the  sky  is  arched. 
Through  thee  the  rose  is  red  ; 
All  things  through  thee  take  nobler  form 
And  look  beyond  the  earth. 
Me,  too,  thy  nobleness  has  taught 
To  master  my  despair  ; 
The  fountains  of  my  hidden  life 
Are  through  thy  friendship  fair.*" 


COMFORT  BY  BEHOLDING       151 

The  poet  Heine  has  an  exquisite  lyric  of  an 
awkward,  listless  fellow  who  suddenly  becomes 
transfigured  into  nobleness  by  the  approach 
of  his  lady-love.  When  she  leaves  he  lapses 
back  into  his  old-time  dulness.  William 
Hazlitt,  the  essayist,  in  one  of  his  essays  tells 
a  story  of  how  the  poet  Coleridge  once  paid 
a  visit  to  his  father.  Young  Hazlitt  was  a 
mere  lad  and  went  to  meet  him  at  the  station, 
and  pilot  the  distinguished  guest  home.  In 
his  fascinating  way  he  describes  that  memo- 
rable walk  and  the  influence  it  had  on  him  in 
later  life.  "  It  sharpened  his  imagination, 
opened  a  new  world  to  him,  put  a  new  glory 
into  the  landscape."  That  surely  was  a  wise 
young  man  who  made  a  practice  of  carrying 
every  morning  to  the  desk  in  his  office  a 
flower  to  keep  reminding  him  of  the  beauty 
of  purity.  In  mediaeval  times  the  knight 
never  started  out  to  do  his  work  until  first  he 
had  entered  the  chapel  of  Christ.  There  before 
the  high  altar,  in  the  very  light  of  the  Sav- 
iour's face,  he  spent  hours  searching  his  life. 
Gounod,  it  will  be  remembered,  had  painted  on 
his  piano  the  head  of  the  Master.  "  Before  I 
begin  to  compose,"  he  would  say,  "  I  look  upon 
that  face  and  His  spirit  passes  into  me."  A 
gentleman  was  advised  in  order  to  reclaim  his 
wayward  boy,  to  hang  the  face  of  Hoffman's 
Christ  in  his  son's  room.    Does  not  the  artist 


152        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

keep  highly  coloured  stones  on  the  table  to  keep 
his  eye  up  to  tone?  No  nature  but  needs 
rechording.  To-day  we  are  studying  as  never 
before  the  virtues  of  climatology.  Medical 
science  has  become  greatly  interested  in  the 
matter  of  atmosphere.  Invalids  seek  the  brac- 
ing heights  of  Colorado,  or  follow  the  sun 
south  to  San  Antonio,  or  cross  the  water  to 
Southern  France.  They  are  becoming  exact- 
ing as  to  fog,  and  dryness,  and  breeze,  and 
altitude.  In  the  study  of  our  social  conditions 
philosophers  and  economists  are  assigning  to 
environment  a  large  and  important  place.  Is 
it  a  strange  thing  if  the  spiritual  life  be  found 
subject  to  the  same  law?  The  little  child  was 
asked,  "  Do  you  want  to  be  like  Christ  ?  "  She 
replied,  "  I  want  to  be  like  Mamma."  Blessed 
the  mother  who  becomes  the  vision  splendid  to 
her  child ! 

And,  of  course,  as  already  forecasted,  such  a 
life  will  be  luminous.  This  is  one  of  the 
mysteries  of  light.  Light  does  not  have  to  try 
to  shine.  It  cannot  help  shining.  Every  life 
that  is  really  changed  by  this  personal  behold- 
ing will  itself  become  radiant.  What  we  see 
we  will  show.  What  we  receive  we  will  reflect. 
The  man  who  lives  at  Courts  will  in  due  time 
take  on  the  courtly  carriage.  Go  out  and  look 
at  yon  evening  star  glowing  in  the  west. 
Remember,  the  light  which  gives  it  such  a 


COMFORT  BY  BEHOLDING       153 

lustre  is  borrowed.  It  is  not  its  own.  It  is  the 
light  of  the  sun  which  has  set  several  hours 
ago.  There  is  no  influence  comparable  to  the 
influence  that  comes  from  contact  with  some 
supremely  lofty  genius.  That  is  why  men 
gave  up  all  and  followed  Jesus.  That  explains 
why  gay  young  knights  broke  off  from  camp 
and  court  and  followed  Bernard  into  the  wil- 
derness. It  was  Charles  James  Fox  of  England, 
bereft  though  he  was  of  good  home  training, 
and  of  helpful  companions  in  youth,  who, 
speaking  of  the  friendship  of  Edmund  Burke, 
said,  "  If  I  were  to  put  together  in  one  scale 
all  political  information  at  my  command,  all 
the  knowledge  which  I  have  gained  through 
science,  and  all  that  I  have  learned  of  the 
affairs  of  the  world  through  the  study  of 
books,  and  into  the  other  the  inspiration  and 
blessing  I  have  derived  from  my  companion- 
ship with  Edmund  Burke,  the  former  could 
not  possibly  compare  with  the  latter." 

A  theory  recently  propounded  is  that  invis- 
ible rays  of  light  emanate  from  the  nerves  of 
the  human  body.  A  French  scientist  recently 
read  a  paper  before  the  French  Academy 
announcing  this  discovery.  He  calls  them  the 
N  rays — nerve  rays.  He  claims  that  the 
more  active  the  nerves  of  thought  and  feeling 
the  more  powerful  these  rays.  This  may  be 
all  pure  theory,  but  in  the  spiritual  life  there 


154        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

is  surely  some  ground  for  the  daring  concep- 
tion. Witness  the  case  of  Henry  Martyn. 
Henry  Martyn  was  one  of  the  most  brilHant 
men  that  ever  graduated  from  Cambridge.  He 
is  sometimes  spoken  of  as  a  saint,  although, 
indeed,  we  know  he  was  not  that,  for  he  was  a 
man  of  quick  and  fiery  temper,  and  with  a 
stubborn  will  to  conquer.  But  Henry  Martyn 
came  to  know  Jesus  Christ  so  intimately  that 
even  the  natives  at  Cawnpore  used  to  say  of 

\  him,  "  God  is  shining  in  that  man's  face."  And 
the  secret  of  it  all  is  a  sentence  in  his  diary 

i  where  he  wrote,  "  My  principal  enjoyment  is 
the  enjoyment  of  God's  presence."  Or, 
instance  the  story  Mark  Rutherford  tells.  It 
is  the  story  of  a  man  who  met  a  woman  one 
day  just  for  a  casual  moment.  "  Neither  of 
them  stopped.  They  were  utter  strangers. 
They  never  met  again.  He  married  and  had 
children.  But  that  face  ever  remained  with 
him.  It  judged  him,  inspired  him,  redeemed 
him.  It  was  conscience,  intellect,  and  will  to 
him.  It  never  lost  its  beauty,  nor  its  purity, 
nor  its  lofty  purpose,  and  it  was  as  powerful  in 
the  man's  age  as  in  youth."  Wherein  lay  the 
explanation  ?  Why,  in  this,  that  the  luminous 
spiritual  life  of  the  woman  streamed  out 
through  her  eye,  her  smile,  her  face,  her  every 
feature. 

Robert  Speer  tells  us  that  when  Dr.  John 


COMFORT  BY  BEHOLDING       155 

Scudder  set  sail  from  New  York  in  1819,  to 
devote  his  life  to  medical  missions  in  India, 
there  was  a  lad  of  sixteen  on  the  dock  among 
the  crowd  which  gathered  to  bid  good-bye  to 
the  missionary.  The  lad's  name  was  James 
Brainerd  Taylor.  The  gleam  of  light  on  Scud- 
der's  face,  as  he  looked  toward  India,  so  im- 
pressed the  boy  that  he  abandoned  his  chosen 
career  and  prepared  for  Princeton.  Is  it  not 
possible  that  the  mediaeval  artists  who  put 
halos  round  the  heads  of  saints  were  not  so  far 
afield  after  all?  There  was  a  light  on  Moses' 
face;  there  was  a  lingering  lustre  on  Stephen's 
face.  Have  we  not  all  seen  some  godly 
mothers  in  Israel,  with  a  glow  in  their  eyes  and 
a  very  gleam  on  their  foreheads?  Sidney 
Smith  said,  half  jokingly,  of  a  contemporary, 
"  the  Ten  Commandments  are  written  upon  his 
countenance."  We  read  of  St.  Vincent  De 
Paul,  who  covered  France  with  charitable 
institutions,  that  his  homely  features  were 
transformed  by  the  sublime  goodness  which 
beamed  through  them.  He  had  been  in  choice 
company  and  had  caught  its  accent.  Wonder- 
ful, wonderful  truth  !  Comforting  truth, 
surely  !  Yea,  inspiring  truth  !  The  vision  of 
God  leaves  its  shining  memories  behind.  The 
man  who  lives  in  the  society  of  the  highest 
catches  its  culture.  It  is  a  transforming 
power.    Prayer  is  an  artist.    Love  makes  us 


156        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

like.  Hugo  says  of  the  good  Bishop's  sister  in 
"  Les  Miserables,"  "  She  had  never  been  pretty, 
but  her  whole  Hfe,  which  had  been  a  succession 
of  good  works,  had  cast  over  her  a  species  of 
whiteness  and  brightness,  and  in  growing  older 
she  had  acquired  the  beauty  of  goodness. 
What  had  been  thinness  in  her  youth,  had  be- 
come in  her  maturity  transparency,  and 
through  this  transparency  the  angel  could  be 
seen."  They  who  behold  Christ  have  Christ 
formed  in  them.  The  glory  which  we  see  sinks 
inward,  soaks  into  us,  then  comes  to  the  sur- 
face and  changes  every  lineament.  Sin  is 
ugly,  and  makes  us  ugly.  Holiness  is  beauti- 
ful, and  makes  us  beautiful.  "  Worship  the 
Lord  in  the  beauty  of  holiness."  Character 
is  caught,  not  taught.  We  appropriate  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  what  we  approve.  When  we  ad- 
mire genuine  nobleness  we  attach  ourselves  to 
the  same  chivalrous  order.  Show  me  what  a 
youth  is  looking  at,  and  I  will  straightway 
outline  his  life.  Tell  me  his  favourite  author, 
his  favourite  pleasure,  his  favourite  work,  and 
I  will  forecast  his  future.  Impossible  to  have 
a  beautiful  mind  and  a  repulsive  life. 

'*  The  highest  faith  makes  still  the  highest  man  ! 
For  we  grow  like  the  things  our  souls  believe, 
And  rise  or  sink  as  we  aim  high  or  low. 
No  mirror  shows  such  likeness  of  the  face 
As  faith  we  live  by  the  heart  and  mind. 
We  are  in  very  truth  that  which  we  love, 
And  love,  like  noblest  deeds,  is  born  of  faith." 


COMFORT  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN 
IDEAL 


COMFORT  AND   THE   CHRISTIAN 
IDEAL 

'*  That  ye  may  approve  the  things  that  are  excellent, 
that  ye  may  be  sincere  and  void  of  offence  unto  the  day 
of  Christ."— Philippians  i  :  lo. 

IT  is  Paul  who  is  speaking.  He  is  speak- 
ing to  the  saints  at  Philippi.  And  he  is 
a  prisoner,  be  it  noted,  at  the  time.  The 
vision  of  martyrdom  is  close  and  clear.  But 
he  thinks  not  of  himself.  His  mind  i^  on  his 
spiritual  children.  **  For  God  is  my  witness, 
how  I  long  after  you,  in  all  the  tender  mercies 
of  Jesus  Christ.  And  this  I  pray,  that  your 
love  may  abound  yet  more  and  more  in  knowl- 
edge and  in  all  discernment;  so  that  ye  may 
approve  the  things  that  are  excellent;  that 
ye  may  be  sincere  and  void  of  offence  unto 
the  day  of  Christ."  Literally,  that  ye  may  test 
the  things  that  are  excellent;  test,  i.  e.,  prove; 
prove  and  so  approve.  We  are  to  apply  our 
spiritual  discernment.  "  That  ye  may  be  sin- 
cere," i.  e.,  able  to  pass  the  severe  searching 
of  sunlight.  The  root  of  the  word  is  solar. 
Nothing  detects  taint  like  sunlight.  It  was  cus- 
tomary for  Oriental  merchants  to  invoke  the  aid 
159 


160        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

of  the  sun,  in  determining  the  quality  of  the 
web.  They  held  it  up  to  the  light.  Greek 
merchants  in  Paul's  time  advertised  sun- 
judged  cloth.  The  apostle  borrows  the  mar- 
ket word  for  his  prayer. 

And  "  void  of  offence,"  i.  e.,  experiencing 
no  stumbling  block  oneself  and  presenting 
none  to  others  in  our  walk  with  God.  But 
the  thought  is  chiefly  that  we  may  run  the 
Christian  race  without  falling  through  any  ob- 
stacle in  our  way,  so  that  when  our  course  is 
finished  we  may  be  found  blameless.  "  Now 
unto  Hiim  that  is  able  to  guard  you  from 
stumbling,  and  to  set  you  before  the  presence 
of  His  glory,  without  blemish  in  exceeding 
joy,  to  the  only  God  our  Saviour  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  be  glory,  majesty, 
dominion  and  power  before  all  time,  and  now, 
and  forever  more.    Amen." 

It  will  thus  be  observed  that  there  are  three 
leading  words  in  our  text — excellence,  sincerity, 
blamelessness.  The  apostle's  prayer  for  these 
Philippian  Christians  was  that  they  might  live 
amid  excellence,  that  they  might  be  sincere, 
and  that  they  might  be  blameless.  Let  us 
meditate  for  a  moment  upon  this  wealthy 
union,  this  trinity  of  shining  virtues. 

His  first  call  is  the  call  to  excellence.  And 
excellence    is    a    word    of    one    dimension—- 


COMFORT  AND  CHRISTIAN  IDEAL  161 

height.  It  is  a  bold  summons  from  the 
heights  to  the  heights.  Come  up  higher. 
Come  to  a  loftier  level  of  spiritual  survey. 
Do  not  live  amid  the  low,  the  malarial,  the 
debatable,  the  doubtful.  Come  up  into  the 
serene,  the  clear,  the  unclouded.  It  is  a 
splendid  call  from  a  lower  to  a  higher  plane 
of  spiritual  attainment.  The  tendency  of  the 
age  is  to  lower  the  standards.  Against  this 
the  apostle  warns.  Be  the  disciples  of  the 
highest,  the  purest,  the  loveliest.  The  better 
always  puts  the  good  out  of  action.  No  wise 
man  advocates  the  good  in  presence  of  the  bet- 
ter. Oil  must  replace  tallow,  gas  oil,  elec- 
tricity gas,  and  it  may  be  radium  electricity. 
"  For  it  is  not  at  all  likely  that  science  is  yet 
done  lighting  new  lamps."  The  manufacturer 
knows  he  cannot  succeed  unless  he  works  with 
the  best.  With  every  new  invention  a  lot  of 
old  machinery  is  discarded  and  sent  to  the 
scrap-heap.  In  Drummond's  life  of  Dr. 
Charles  A.  Berry  there  is  an  object  lesson 
of  this  truth  that  once  gripped  the  heart  of 
the  great  Wolverhampton  preacher.  One  day 
Dr.  Berry  was  passing  a  cotton-mill.  He  saw 
pieces  of  machinery  being  thrown  out  of  the 
upper  windows  and  falling  in  shattered  frag- 
ments on  the  ground.  In  answer  to  a  ques- 
tion the  manager   remarked,   "  You   see  the 


162        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

mill  doesn't  run  for  the  machinery :  it  runs  to 
make  cotton.'*  Our  own  battleship,  the  Mis- 
sissippi, was  launched  only  three  years  ago, 
but  already  she  is  a  back  number;  her  speed 
and  engine  power  not  being  on  a  par  with  the 
latest  fighting  ironclads.  The  navy  that  fights 
with  old  guns  cannot  hope  for  victory.  The 
trouble  with  us  oftentimes  is  that  we  are  sat- 
isfied with  something  second-rate.  In  Robert 
Herrick's  book,  "  The  Common  Lot,"  there  is 
told  the  story  of  a  young  architect  who  bade 
the  ideals  of  his  art  depart.  He  was  saved 
at  the  last,  saved  as  by  fire,  through  the  love 
of  a  pure  and  noble  woman.  But  alas  for  the 
man  who  lowers  his  ideals !  for  to  lower  one's 
ideals  is  forsooth  to  lose  them. 

We  hear  it  said  sometimes,  "  Oh,  I  did 
pretty  good."  And  the  phrase  sounds  plaus- 
ible. But  not  so!  Doing  pretty  good  is  dan- 
gerous doing.  One  of  the  greatest  enemies  to 
success  is  the  pretty  good.  I  have  heard  men 
say,  "  I  try  to  live  a  fairly  good  life;  "  which 
means  that  they  have  no  lofty,  exacting,  chal- 
lenging altitudes.  If  a  man  is  satisfied  to 
write  pretty  well,  he  will  never  be  a  writer. 
If  he  is  satisfied  to  paint  pretty  well,  he 
will  never  be  an  artist.  The  comparative  must 
make  room  for  the  superlative.  The  merchant 
in  the  parable  sought  for  pearls — the  supreme 


COMFORT  AND  CHRISTIAN  IDEAL  163 

gem  of  the  market.  There  are  pearls  of  great 
price  and  pearls  of  greater  price;  and  there 
is  one  of  greatest  price.  "  Covet  earnestly 
the  best  gifts."  You  recall  the  words 
of  Queen  Guinevere: 

'•  It  was  my  duty  to  have  loved  the  highest ; 
It  surely  was  my  profit  had  I  known  ; 
It  would  have  been  my  pleasure  had  I  seen. 
We  needs  must  love  the  highest  when  we  see  it, 
Not  Lancelot,  nor  another." 

Be  true  to  the  best  you  can  see  and  you  will 
straightway  see  a  better.  We  are  to  be  the 
disciples  of  the  Superlative. 

Sometimes  young  people  ask,  why  is  there 
room  left  for  doubt  on  these  great  spiritual 
realities?  Why  was  there  not  made  a  revela- 
tion so  clear  and  convincing  that  no  fair- 
minded  man  could  find  the  shadow  of  an  ex- 
cuse to  question  it  ?  This  is  why.  Because  there 
is  no  room  for  debate  on  the  things  that  are 
really  imperative.  If  you  could  figure  out  the 
spiritual  problem  like  an  equation  in  quad- 
ratics, there  would  be  no  margin  left  for  the 
heroic.  There  is  no  room  for  doubt  as  to  the 
best  things.  It  is  right  to  do  right.  It  is  right 
to  be  clean.  It  is  right  to  love.  This  is  the 
best.  The  highest  is  true  and  the  highest  I 
know  is  Jesus.  Paul  gloried  in  calling  him- 
self the  slave  of  Jesus   Christ.     That   ideal 


164        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

was  so  lofty  as  to  captivate  and  charm  the 
apostle. 

One  of  the  things  that  troubles  young  peo- 
ple oftentimes,  before  they  give  their  hearts 
to  Christ,  is  what  they  must  needs  surrender. 
Surrender?  Surrender  a  shadow  for  a  sub- 
stance! Surrender  a  pen  for  a  palace!  Sur- 
render rags  for  a  robe,  husks  for  a  banquet! 
Surrender  a  silicate  for  a  diamond,  paste  for 
pearls,  bubbles  for  jewels!  When  a  wave  of 
happy  sunlight  rolls  in  from  the  East,  then  the 
lamp  loses  its  meaning.  When  the  mind  is 
educated  up  to  good  literature,  it  declines  poor 
literature.  When  the  ear  is  attuned  to  high- 
grade  music,  it  will  not  listen  to  rag-time. 
When  the  eye  is  trained  to  a  pure  painting,  it 
will  scorn  a  base  one.  And  when  the  heart 
finds  Christ,  the  world  is  empty.  Cicero  tells 
us  of  a  prisoner  who,  after  spending  almost  his 
whole  life  in  a  dungeon,  was  distressed  when 
told  that  the  prison  wall  was  about  to  be  torn 
down,  and  he  led  into  the  light  of  morning. 
Are  not  many  like  this  prisoner  ?  Are  not  many 
like  the  Colorado  miner,  who  sought  so  long 
and  so  diligently  for  silver  that  he  had  over- 
looked gold?  When  the  white  metal  depreci- 
ated he  thought  he  was  ruined  and  prepared 
straightway  for  bankruptcy,  until  one  morn- 
ing his  chemist  chanced  on  the  slag  heap  and 


COMFORT  AND  CHRISTIAN  IDEAL  165 

saw  clear  evidences  of  the  yellow  ore.  Soon 
it  was  discovered  that  the  veins  beneath  were 
fabulously  rich  in  gold. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  how  true  is  the  old  fa- 
miliar saying,  '*  the  good  is  the  enemy  of  the 
best."  The  good  before  the  best  is  the  snare 
of  the  world,  but  the  best  before  the  good  is 
the  order  of  heaven.  Goethe  said,  "  our  bless- 
ings are  our  greatest  curses."  For  many  it 
is  not  the  worst  that  is  their  greatest  enemy. 
The  number  of  those  who  find  their  chief  de- 
light in  the  flagrant  forms  of  sin  and  shame 
is  happily  small.  They  have  too  high  ideals 
for  that.  Their  devotion  is  to  the  good  things 
of  the  world.  And  it  is  this  very  fact  that 
constitutes  some  of  the  difficulties  of  the 
Christian  Church.  Men  think  that  because 
they  are  enemies  of  the  worst  and  friends  of 
the  good  that  therefore  they  are  disciples  of 
the  best.  And  it  was  the  constant  teaching  of 
Jesus  that  the  good  as  well  as  the  evil  may 
sometimes  stand  in  the  way  of  a  soul's  en- 
trance into  the  kingdom.  Here  it  was  that  the 
rich  young  ruler  stumbled.  The  good  things  of 
this  present  life  had  blinded  his  eyes  to  the 
finer  glories  of  the  future.  Thus  the  temporal 
became  the  foe  of  the  eternal,  the  material 
of  the  spiritual.  *'  These  ought  ye  to  have 
done  and  not  to  have  left  the  others  undone." 


166        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

Now  our  text  says  that  we  are  to  test  the 
best  things.  Strive  that  you  may  excel. 
"  Covet  earnestly  the  best  gifts,  and  yet  a  more 
excellent  way  show  I  unto  you."  God  asks 
of  us  our  best.  He  desires  to  give  us  His  best. 
To  renounce  things  confessedly  admirable  in 
the  name  of  something  excelling — this  it  is 
to  which  we  are  called.  We  must  not  miss  the 
main  prize.  General  Armstrong  once  said  to 
a  friend,  "  When  you  see  me  getting  rich, 
pray  for  my  soul."  It  was  not  that  the  Gen- 
eral undervalued  riches.  It  was  simply  that 
he  feared  lest  he  might  overvalue  them.  He 
knew  that  if  the  good  was  allowed  to  take 
precedence  over  the  best,  spiritual  deteriora- 
tion would  forthwith  follow.  Satan  comes  in 
guise  oftentimes  as  an  angel  of  light.  There 
are  choices  where  the  issue  is  plain  and  clear- 
cut.  No  one  need  hesitate  for  an  instant  on 
which  side  light  and  on  which  side  darkness 
lie.  But  other  choices  are  not  so  easy.  They 
are  rendered  difficult  by  false  resemblances, 
just  as  the  deadly  fungus  looks  like  the  mush- 
room, or  as  the  wild  parsnip  simulates  the 
cultivated.  *'  Prove  the  things  that  are  ex- 
cellent," says  the  text.  Prove  first,  then  ap- 
prove. 

The  Gospel  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  stands 
to-day,  as  it  has  ever  stood,  for  all  the  vital 


COMFORT  AND  CHRISTIAN  IDEAL  167 

forces  that  are  lifting  men  up  into  fellowship 
with  the  excellent.  It  stands  for  a  faith  to  keep, 
and  for  another  faith  that  enables  me  to  keep 
it.  It  stands  for  pardon,  for  love,  for  loveli- 
ness, for  hope,  for  joy,  for  peace,  for  purity, 
for  things  of  good  report,  for  excellence  in 
every  line.  It  stands  for  the  great  immortal 
concert  of  the  divine  voices  in  history — ^the 
saints  and  the  prophets  of  all  the  ages.  More- 
over Christianity,  as  an  interpretation  of  the 
universe,  is  so  far  above  all  other  philosophical 
conceptions  that  it  may  be  said  to  have  won 
the  serious  judgment  of  the  world.  The 
faith  that  regards  the  thought  of  the  eternal 
as  being  our  Father,  and  we  His  family,  and 
the  universe  His  dwelling-place,  and  love  His 
law,  is  the  ideal  of  all  lofty  thinking.  It  fits  the 
aspirations  of  our  hearts.  "  Too  good  to  be 
true,"  men  say.  Nothing  can  be  too  good  to 
be  true.  The  best  ought  to  be  true.  The  best, 
as  already  stated,  must  be  true.  There  is  only 
one  religion,  "  Make  the  most  of  your  best." 
The  next  word  is  Sincerity.  "  That  ye  may  be 
sincere."  Sincerity!  Grand  word,  and  word 
unsoiled,  unspoiled!  So  much  that  we  touch 
we  defile!  But  the  word  sincere  comes  down 
to  us  untarnished.  There  is  nothing  doubt- 
ful or  equivocal  about  it;  it  rings  true;  it  is 
genuine,  sterling,  four  and  twenty  carats.  The 


168        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

English  coin  is  made  up  of  eleven  parts  gold 
and  one  part  copper;  the  American  coin  is 
nine  gold  and  one  copper;  but  the  word  sincere 
is  all  gold,  no  copper.  For  the  root  meaning 
of  the  Greek  adjective  is  "  tested  in  the  sun- 
light." The  sincere  man  is  the  man  tested  in 
the  sunlight.  Mr.  Moody  was  fond  of  remark- 
ing that  character  was  what  a  man  was  in  the 
dark;  but  you  cannot  tell  what  a  man  will  be 
in  the  dark  till  he  has  been  first  tested  in  the 
light.  So  that  our  second  phrase  is  the  logical 
sequence  of  the  first.  We  test  the  things  that 
are  excellent,  and  we  test  them  in  the  sun- 
light, and  this  is  sincerity. 

Sincerity  is  being  what  we  seem  to  be. 
Here  is  a  piece  of  grey  stone;  it  pretends  to  be 
nothing  but  a  stone,  and  it  isn't.  It  is  almost 
pure  carbonate  of  lime,  doesn't  profess  to  be 
anything  else;  it  is  sincere.  But  here  is  an- 
other stone;  it  is  blue;  it  professes  to  be  a 
sapphire,  but  when  I  put  it  in  water  it  loses 
its  lustre,  which  shows  it  to  be  only  an  imita- 
tion; it  professes  to  be  something  that  it  is 
not;  it  is  not  sincere.  Sincerity  is  simplicity, 
transparency,  clear  as  the  light,  pure  as  the 
dewdrop,  simple  as  the  line  of  truth.  To  be 
sure  sincerity  is  not  the  main  thing.  The  main 
thing  is  to  be  true.  Let  us  be  sincere  of  course, 
but  let  us  first  of  all  be  true.    Excellence  must 


COMFORT  AND  CHRISTIAN  IDEAL  169 

come  before  sincerity.  It  is  not  enough  to  be 
honest ;  we  must  be  honestly  honest.  "  Thou 
requirest  truth  in  the  inward  parts."  Some 
there  are  to-day  who  say  that  it  matters  not 
what  you  beheve,  providing  only  you  are  sin- 
cere, which  is  about  the  same  as  saying  that 
it  matters  not  for  which  cause  you  fight,  truth 
or  falsehood,  if  you  only  fight  bravely.  It 
matters  not  what  you  believe  ?  Why,  after  all, 
about  the  only  thing  that  does  matter  in  this 
life  is  what  we  believe.  One  of  the  great 
curses  of  the  world  has  been  the  sincere  peo- 
ple with  false  consciences.  There  are  sincere 
Mormons,  sincere  Mohammedans.  Jesus 
warned  His  disciples  that  the  time  was  coming 
when  those  who  killed  them  would  think  that 
they  were  doing  God  a  service.  There  can 
be  little  doubt  that  Calvin  was  sincere  when 
he  permitted  Servetus  to  be  burned.  There 
are  corrupt  and  depraved  sincerities.  Let  not 
the  truth  ever  be  sacrificed  for  the  sake  of  a 
false  conscience.  Error  never  asks  how  con- 
scientious we  may  be  in  believing  it.  Here  is 
a  pilot  steering  his  ship  into  the  harbour.  He 
believes  the  light  he  sees  yonder  to  be  such 
and  such,  but  it  is  not.  Does  that  belief  save 
him?  Nature  cares  not  how  honest  we  are 
in  our  convictions.  Half  the  tragedies  of  his- 
tory have  arisen  from  honestly  believing  things 


170        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

that  were  not  so.  When  the  mother  of  Xerxes 
buried  alive  a  number  of  youths  to  propitiate 
the  deities  as  her  son  was  about  to  depart  on 
one  of  his  expeditions,  she  was  acting  sincerely 
no  doubt.  Or  when  we  think  of  Philip  II  of 
Spain,  we  think  most  likely  of  a  monster.  He 
carried  out  the  Inquisition  with  such  fiendish 
energy.  But  Philip,  we  are  told  by  those  who 
knew  him  best,  was  a  man  of  gentleness  and  a 
tender  heart.  In  his  later  years  he  was 
canonised  as  a  saint.  His  frightful  persecu- 
tions were  the  result  of  his  deep  sincerity 
and  belief  that  he  had  the  souls  of  his  subjects 
entrusted  to  him,  and  that  he  ruled  by  divine 
right.  Alas,  alas !  righteous  pride  is  the  most 
arrogant  pride ;  religious  bigotry  the  narrowest 
bigotry ;  religious  hate  the  bitterest  hate. 

The  power  of  Savonarola  consisted  largely 
in  his  sincerity.  His  sermons  do  not  seem  to 
have  been  more  remarkable  than  those  of  many 
another  pulpiteer.  It  was  the  feeling  that 
everybody  had  that  the  great  prophet  believed 
what  he  said,  meant  what  he  said,  said  what 
he  meant.  Burlamaqui,  the  great  Swiss  jurist, 
tells  how  the  people  would  get  up  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  night  to  be  sure  of  a  seat  in  church. 
What  an  astonishing  record!  And  yet  the 
magnetism  was  not  due  to  the  matter  so  much 
as  to  the  man.   Here  was  a  soul  in  dead  earnest 


COMFORT  AND  CHRISTIAN  IDEAL  171 

for  righteousness.    Fra  Mariano  was  brought 
to  Florence  to  counteract  the  influence  of  Sa- 
vonarola.    He  was  a  better  speaker,  a  more 
cuhivated   orator.      He   had    wider  learning, 
a  richer  voice..     He  was  beloved  too  by  the 
citizens.    He  was  considered  in  fact  the  great- 
est preacher  in  Italy,  but  he  failed  because  he 
lacked  the  red-hot  passion  of  the  Florentine 
prophet.     Robert  Collyer  tells  of  returning  to 
the  old  village  home  after  becoming  a  Uni- 
tarian, and  preaching  in  the  old  church  where 
as  a  blacksmith  boy  he  used  to  worship.     At 
the  close  of  the  service  his  Methodist  mother 
took  his  arm  and  said,  *'  Ah,  Robert !    I  didna 
understand  much  thee  said,  and  what  I  did 
understand,    I  didna   like;    but    I   believe   in 
thee."     Great  and  strong  and  mighty  is  the 
man  who  is  believed  in.     Nothing  is  quite  so 
weakening  as  suspicion  just  here.     The  world 
will  allow  for  much,  but  not  for  cant  and  h ol- 
io wness.     The  preacher  may  be  forceful  and 
fluent,  but  if  we  doubt  his  candour,  instantly 
for  us  he  loses  his  power.     Once  the  pastor 
is  distrusted,   how  quickly  the  flock  scatter. 
To-day  it  is  getting  difficult  to  be  true,  because 
life  is  so  filled  with  little  compromises.     The 
passion  for  success  is  so  great  that  men  are 
tempted  to  be  politic.     Few  say  exactly  what 
they  really  think.    They  have  not  the  courage, 


172        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

for  one  thing.  They  prefer  to  curve  to  the 
custom.  They  are  not  perpendicular.  Insin- 
cerity is  the  deathblow  to  individuality.  Nor 
is  there  any  greater  blow  to  manhood.  It  cor- 
rodes manhood,  destroys  influence.  I  may  be 
unlettered,  yet  men  may  respect  me.  I  may  be 
hasty  and  impatient,  and  yet  men  may  make 
allowance  for  me.  I  may  be  foolish  and  have 
them  pity  me.  But  if  I  am  double  in  my  deal- 
ings they  will  despise  me.  It  is  here  that  all 
religions,  save  Christianity,  break  down.  The 
password  of  Christianity  is,  *'  Search  me,  O 
God,  and  know  my  heart,  try  me  and  know  my 
thought."  The  Chinaman  believes  that  he  can 
cheat  his  god,  and  as  a  consequence  the  whole 
life  of  China  is  shot  through  with  trickery  and 
deceit.  Did  not  the  Greek  of  old  present  a 
stuffed  ox  in  sacrifice  to  Jupiter,  thinking  that 
Jupiter  could  be  taken  in?  As  Christians  we 
appreciate  the  childishness  of  this.  We  may 
deceive  our  fellowmen;  we  may  deceive  our- 
selves; we  cannot  deceive  Him.  **  Be  not  de- 
ceived, God  is  not  mocked."  The  first  article  in 
our  faith  is  that  there  is  an  eye  that  sees  all. 
"  All  things  are  naked  and  open  unto  the  eyes 
of  Him  with  whom  we  have  to  do."  For  we  are 
seen  through  and  through.  We  are  searched. 
*'  Be  so  that  ye  can  be  tested  in  the  sunlight," 
says  the  apostle.    Things  look  different  in  the 


CX)MFORT  AND  CHRISTIAN  IDEAL  173 

sunlight.  Sunlight  shows  the  colour,  the 
texture,  the  fabric,  the  weft,  the  stain  if  stain 
there  be.  When  a  ray  of  sunlight  steals 
through  a  crack  in  the  shutter,  how  the  air  in 
the  room  reveals  its  burden  of  dust.  And  we 
are  to  stand  this  searching  test.  For  this  alone 
is  sincerity. 

The  third  word  is  blamelessness :  "  And  void 
of  offence  unto  the  day  of  Christ."  The  root 
idea  is  stumbling.  We  are  to  run  the  Christian 
race  without  stumbling;  not  stumbling  our- 
selves and  not  causing  others  to  stumble. 
"  Now  unto  Him  that  is  able  to  guard  you 
from  stumbling  and  to  set  you  before  the  pres- 
ence of  His  glory  without  blemish  in  exceed- 
ing joy,  to  the  only  God  our  Saviour  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  be  glory,  majesty, 
dominion,  and  power,  before  all  time,  and  now 
and  forever  more.    Amen." 

This  is  not  f aultlessness ;  this  is  blameless- 
ness— "  Without  blemish."  Thirty  years  after 
the  great  apostle  himself  had  been  converted, 
he  writes,  looking  back  to  the  time  of  his 
persecuting  zeal,  "touching  the  righteousness 
which  is  in  the  law  found  blameless."  The 
reference  is  to  his  strict  observance  of  the 
letter  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  Pharisaic 
legalist.  The  most  extreme  Jewish  religionist 
could  not  have  foimd  fault.     **  I  was  blame- 


174        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

less,"  he  boasts,  "  so  far  as  law  can  make  a 
man  so."  And  yet  it  was  this  same  man  who 
declares  that  it  was  the  Tenth  Commandment 
that  revealed  to  him  his  sin  by  following 
that  sin  up  to  its  fountain-head  in  the  heart. 

Many  there  are  to-day  who  stumble  over 
this  matter  of  Bible  perfection.  There  is  surely 
no  good  reason  for  any  cloudy  thinking  on 
the  great  doctrine.  There  is  a  perfection  that 
is  faultless  and  there  is  a  perfection  that  is 
blameless.  There  is  a  perfection  that  is  ab- 
solute and  final  and  there  is  a  perfection  that 
is  relative  and  conditional.  "  The  whole  body 
perfectly  joined  together,"  i.  e.,  equipped  so 
as  to  secure  efficiency.  And  what  is  efficiency  ? 
Doing  the  will  of  God!  A  perfect  Christian 
is  one  fitted  in  every  part  to  do  the  will  of 
God.  All  his  powers  are  restored  to  this  their 
normal  order.  It  has  been  well  said  that  a 
thing  may  be  perfect  in  its  present  stage  and 
yet  imperfect  in  view  of  its  ultimate  finish. 
The  Mosaic  economy  was  perfect  for  its  time. 
The  child  is  perfect  as  a  child.  A  babe  of  three 
is  a  delight,  but  a  babe  of  twenty  is  an  ob- 
ject of  pity.  Is  the  bud  perfect?  Surely,  as 
a  bud.  But  the  perfect  flower  is  a  future  at- 
tainment. "  Be  ye  therefore  perfect,"  says  the 
Master.  Be  adult,  He  means;  be  full-grown; 
be  mature.    Perfection  is  maturity,  complete- 


COMFORT  AND  CHRISTIAN  IDEAL  175 

ness,  integrity.  Holiness  is  wholeness.  Wes- 
ley used  to  say  that  pure  love  reigning  in  the 
heart  is  Christian  perfection.  Can  we  have  it? 
How?  By  a  perfect  Christ  dwelling  within. 
This  is  our  only  claim  to  the  infinite  wealth 
of  the  positive  grace.  A  perfect  title  to  a 
property  is  one  that  is  valid  before  the  law. 
The  paper  may  be  soiled,  the  penmanship 
wretched,  but  if  the  signature  is  genuine  and 
the  law  satisfied,  then  it  is  a  perfect  title.  What 
folly  to  claim  faultlessness  if  we  are  to  be 
judged  by  the  inspecting  eye  of  the  Sun  of 
Righteousness!  He  will  reveal  forsooth  the 
palest  stain.  Sinlessness  depends  on  the  lofti- 
ness of  our  ideal.  As  we  rise  in  the  scak,  our 
ideal  rises.  How  absurd  the  complacency  that 
regards  itself  as  sinless  in  view  of  the  untrod 
altitudes  to  which  the  Christ  calls!  The  idea 
of  perfection  here  on  earth  belongs  to  an  old 
theology,  a  finite  theology,  a  materialistic  the- 
ology, a  theology  of  laws  and  rules  and  eti- 
quettes. But  the  true  theology  is  spiritual;  its 
aim  is  spiritual;  its  ideal  of  manhood  is  spirit- 
ual and  there  are  no  boundaries  to  the  spiritual. 
Man  is  a  germinant,  growing  creature.  He  is 
not  perfect,  until  Christ  be  fully  ripened  within. 
Perfection  on  this  earth  does  not  belong  to 
the  Christian  order.  There  are  approaches  that 
way — ^that  is  all.    No  one  of  the  greatest  saints 


176        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

was  faultless.  Even  St.  Francis  had  short- 
comings. John  Wesley  was  proud,  Samuel 
was  uncharitable,  St.  Augustine  was  contro- 
versial. There  are  flaws  in  the  marble,  spots 
in  the  sun.  This  is  the  sad  tragic  outlook,  but 
all  can  be  void  of  offence,  and  this  is  the  call — 
to  blamelessness.  This  is  the  comfort,  this  the 
strength,  this  the  glory  of  the  Christian  ideal 
The  Master  beckons  us  to  soar  and  sit  with 
Him  in  high  places.  He  heartens  us  for  the 
high  and  heavenly  endeavor. 


THE  COMFORT  OF  FINAL 
VICTORY 


THE   COMFORT   OF   FINAL  VICTORY 

"The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  like  unto  leaven." — 
Matthew  13  :  33. 

EMERSON  says  that  not  more  than  six 
people  in  any  one  age  ever  read  Plato. 
These  six  scholars  translate  him  into 
the  vernacular  of  the  one  hundred  who  live  on 
the  plane  below,  while  these  in  turn  interpret 
the  great  Athenian  to  the  thinking  of  the  com- 
mon people.  After  a  great  truth  is  discovered, 
it  takes  generations  for  it  to  filter  down 
through  the  mass  and  seep  out  finally  at  the 
bottom  of  the  bulk. 

Society  is  saved  by  the  few  great  leaders. 
One  Martin  Luther  blazes  a  footpath  up  the 
mountain,  and  then  the  dozen  next  in  order 
follow.  One  Frances  Willard  speaks,  and 
soon  the  rest  rise  to  her  level.  No  one  but  a 
thinker  ever  reads  Dante.  None  but  a  poet 
reads  Edmund  Spenser.  Browning's  audience  is 
small ;  so  likewise  Goethe's,  Shakespeare's,  Sid- 
ney Lanier's,  Emerson's.  When  we  read  Patrick 
Henry's  eloquence,  we  imagine  a  spacious 
auditorium  thronged  with  spell-bound  listen- 
ers, but  in  truth,  Patrick  Henry's  greatest 
179 


180        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

speeches  were  given  to  a  choice  company  in  a 
little  room  that  never  seated  more  than  one 
hundred  and  fifty.  William  H.  Seward's  ora- 
tion in  defence  of  William  Freeman  was  pro- 
nounced by  Horace  Greeley  to  be  the  "  great- 
est masterpiece  in  the  history  of  oratory,  rea- 
son, logic,  and  humanity,''  but  only  about  one 
hundred  heard  it.  Jonathan  Edwards  did  not 
have  a  metropolitan  congregation.  Possibly 
no  preacher  of  the  last  century  wielded  more 
influence  than  James  Martineau,  but  James 
Martineau  rarely  preached  to  more  than  two 
or  three  hundred  people ;  but  these  were  select  ; 
they  were  scholars  who  interpreted  the  man 
to  the  multitude.  The  fact  is  that  the  great 
thinker  speaks  to  a  few,  these  few  to  a  larger 
few,  these  larger  few  to  a  wider  circle,  and  this 
wider  circle  to  the  world. 

I  think  it  is  Buckle  who  says  that  "  Adam 
Smith's  '  Wealth  of  Nations '  has  had  a 
greater  influence  on  civilisation  than  any  book 
ever  written."  But  how  few  comparatively 
have  read  it  !  Instance  the  story  of  Kepler. 
He  had  just  made  his  notable  discovery  con- 
cerning the  elliptical  motion  of  the  planets. 
But  he  dared  not  publish  his  work,  else  the 
Church  would  surely  excommunicate  him.  On 
his  deathbed  the  manuscript  which  summed  up 
his  great  achievement  was  brought  to  him.  He 


COMFORT  OF  FINAL  VICTORY  181 

remarked,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  "  I  trust  that 
now  and  then,  one  or  two  or  three  in  a  cen- 
tury will  be  able  to  comprehend  this  discovery ; 
then  soon  it  will  be  mankind's."  It  is  now 
almost  two  centuries  and  a  half  since  Sir  Isaac 
Newton  had  revealed  to  him  the  germ  of  his 
"  Principia."  And  it  was  almost  half  a  lifetime 
later  before  he  felt  justified  in  announcing  his 
discovery.  He  gave  to  the  world  no  half- 
baked  hypothesis.  He  had  no  theory  to 
exploit.  Newton  was  in  quest  of  truth.  In 
this  how  different  from  the  average  scientist 
of  to-day!  How  the  young  enthusiast  hurries 
to  the  press  for  notoriety!  Newton  knew  he 
could  afford  to  wait,  as  did  also  Darwin.  Here 
is  a  patient  man  of  science  toiling  for  years  up 
there  in  Dundee  by  the  Tay.  He  works  away 
till  eye  is  dim  and  hair  silvered  and  natural 
force  spent.  At  the  end  he  publishes  a  book 
which  probably  not  one  hundred  people  ever 
read.  But  the  other  day  Marconi  made  a  little 
speech  in  Scotland,  and,  referring  to  this  Dun- 
dee scholar,  he  used  these  words,  "  Without 
that  man  of  science  my  discoveries  would  have 
been  impossible."  The  truth  is  that  God  speaks 
to  the  multitude  through  chosen  individuals. 
We  do  not  all  discover  the  circulation  of  the 
blood,  or  movable  type,  or  the  laws  of  steam 
and   electricity.     Every   now  and  then   God 


182        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

raises  up  and  furnishes  some  prophet  like  a 
Jenner,  a  Watt,  an  Edison  to  lead  their  genera- 
tion and  all  the  generations  following  into  the 
promised  land.  All  great  truths  reach  the 
world  through  the  election  and  service  and 
ministry  of  individuals.  As  a  single  drop  of 
aniline  will  tint  a  hogshead  of  water,  so  has 
the  thought  of  the  world  been  coloured  by  its 
Augustines,  its  Calvins,  its  Kants,  its  Kegels, 
its  Carlyles.  This  is  the  law  of  the  leaven. 
The  kingdom  of  truth  is  like  unto  a  leaven 
which  a  woman  took  and  hid  in  three  measures 
of  m'eal  until  the  whole  was  leavened. 

( I )  Notice  that  the  law  of  the  leaven  is  the 
law  of  Christian  experience.  The  new  birth  is 
an  act  instantaneous,  miraculous.  It  is  life, 
but  not  fulness  of  life.  It  is  not  the  rich  flame, 
strong,  steady,  brilliant,  conspicuous.  It  is  but 
a  spark,  faint,  feeble,  quivering,  tremulous. 
We  must  gently  nurture  the  timid  pulse  into 
lustiness  and  vigour.  It  is  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  established  in  the  heart,  and  it  is  like 
unto  leaven,  for  it  begins  with  a  faint,  quiet, 
gentle  quickening,  a  recognition  of  God  in  the 
soul,  and  it  ends  with  His  supreme  Kingship 
and  Lordship  there.  It  is  a  leavening  process, 
something  that  touches  and  permeates  and 
exalts  every  faculty  of  body,  mind,  and  spirit. 
It  is  first  an  inworking  from  without,  then 


COMFORT  OF  FINAL  VICTORY  183 

an  outworking  from  within.  Only  after  long 
years  of  patient  study  and  strenuous  training 
in  the  school  of  the  Spirit,  does  the  reborn  babe 
in  Christ  struggle  up  into  the  all-rounded  cul- 
ture of  the  full-grown  believer. 

Character  is  a  growth  from  lower  to  higher, 
from  higher  to  highest.  A  man's  character 
cannot  be  changed  instantaneously.  His  will 
may  be,  but  not  his  character.  "  A  new  spirit 
will  I  put  within  you."  A  new  spirit  is  a  new 
moral  disposition,  a  new  bent  toward  the 
things  of  the  Spirit.  Change  of  will  is  an  im- 
mediate act.  Conversion  is  at  bottom  decision. 
It  is  the  coming  over  of  the  will  from  self-con- 
trol to  the  Christ-control.  It  is  the  soul  saying, 
"  I  will  arise  and  go  to  the  Father."  The 
power  of  God  always  meets  a  man  at  the  point 
of  his  willingness.  But  character  is  like  the 
redwood;  it  asks  for  long  stretches.  It  calls 
for  patience  and  ample  time-allowance.  For 
life  begins  with  a  birth,  and  all  life  is  a  series 
of  births.  All  life  is  an  awakening.  Every 
development  is  a  door  into  a  larger  liberty. 
The  college  lad  enters  the  university  and  is 
straightway  born  into  a  new  world  of  science 
and  literature.  The  young  girl  went  to  hear 
Ruskin,  and  came  out  an  artist.  Her  pos- 
sibilities lay  dormant.  She  knew  them  not. 
He  touched  them  into  consciousness.    There  is 


184         A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

in  man  the  power  to  see  the  invisible,  but  the 
power  must  be  awakened.  Learning  will  not 
awaken  it,  nor  will  culture,  nor  science.  He 
must  be  born  again.  Each  room  in  the  temple 
of  wisdom  hath  its  own  entrance  door  and  its 
own  lock.  Only  a  spiritual  key  will  give  access 
to  the  glories  of  the  spiritual  outlook.  And 
the  spiritual  revelation  is  a  gradual  one.  "  I 
have  yet  many  things  to  say  unto  you,  but  ye 
cannot  bear  them  now."  All  things  are  an 
education  if  we  but  respond  to  the  discipline. 
The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  like  unto  a  leaven 
which  a  woman  took  and  hid  in  three  measures 
of  meal,  body,  soul,  and  spirit,  until  the  whole 
was  leavened. 

Darwin  said  that  all  great  changes  wrought 
in  nature  are  the  results  of  slow,  minute,  im- 
perceptible graduations.  Nature  knows  noth- 
ing of  leaps  and  bounds.  Sometimes  in  early 
spring  you  have  noticed  how  dead  all  nature 
seems.  The  trees  are  bare,  the  snow  is  linger- 
ing stealthily  along  the  fences.  Not  a  leaf  is 
to  be  seen.  Then  a  day  of  warm  sunshine 
bursts  upon  us,  and  lo!  some  morning  as  if 
by  magic  the  garden  is  green.  It  seemed  all 
so  sudden.  But  not  so,  for  on  God's  loom  of 
January  that  robe  was  being  spun.  The 
Divine  artist  was  getting  that  garment  ready 
all  winter  long.     It  was  no  doubt  somewhat 


COMFORT  OF  FINAL  VICTORY  185 

thus  that  Tennyson  wrote  his  *'  Crossing  the 
Bar  "  one  October  morning  when  in  his  eighty- 
first  year.  He  showed  the  poem  to  his  son 
who  said,  "  Father,  that  is  the  crown  of  your 
life-work."  He  answered,  "  It  came  in  a  flash." 
Maybe  it  did.  Maybe  it  came  in  a  flash  as 
the  greenery  of  the  garden  did.  Was  there 
ever  a  more  exacting  writer  than  the  great 
laureate?  How  he  wrote  and  rewrote  and 
scratched  and  erased  and  reviewed  and  re- 
vised! What  intense  and  painstaking  care  he 
threw  into  the  filing  of  every  phrase,  the 
polishing  of  every  line!  Doubtless,  though 
unconsciously  perhaps,  many  years  of  toil  led 
up  to  the  throwing  off  of  this  little  gem.  For 
full  oft  the  creative  forces  in  life  are  like 
leaven,  noiseless,  invisible,  underneath,  sub- 
concealed. 

(2)  The  law  of  the  leaven  is  also  the  law 
of  the  spread  of  the  Kingdom  in  the  world. 
Leaven  is  that  which  lifts.  The  root  meaning 
of  the  word  is  to  raise.  The  world  is  sunken 
and  needs  uplift.  Christ  chose  an  ecclesia.  He 
works  through  it.  It  is  by  means  of  this  eccle- 
sia that  He  is  to-day  establishing  His  King- 
dom. Consider  the  apostles,  that  handful  of 
simple  unlearned  fishermen.  They  only  had  a 
few  converts,  and  all  or  nearly  all  died 
martyrs,  but  they  infused  the  spirit  of  their 


186        A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

Master  into  society,  and  to-day  we  have  a  new 
civilisation  and  a  new  order.  Occasionally  we 
hear  men  denying  that  the  world  is  growing 
better.  "  Look,"  says  one  student  of  our 
times,  ''  look  at  the  crime,  the  cruelty,  the 
selfishness,  the  thirst  for  gain,  the  pleasure 
madness,  the  Sabbath  desecration,  the  prepara- 
tions for  war,  the  ignoring  of  God,  the  greed, 
the  graft — look  at  these  things.  Look  at  the 
divorces,  one  hundred  and  thirty  thousand 
every  year  in  our  own  beloved  republic,  and 
then  tell  me  if  society  is  one  whit  better  than 
in  the  days  of  Nero."  But  this  is  surely  a  one- 
sided outlook.  These  things  are  true,  but 
there  are  balancing  compensations.  Look  at 
the  other  side  of  the  picture.  See  the  fertile 
spots  redeemed — human  life  made  sacred, 
slavery  abolished,  labour  ennobled,  womanhood 
respected  and  reverenced,  childhood  guarded, 
brotherhood  proclaimed,  kindness  to  the  dumb 
world  inculcated,  the  temperance  sentiment 
growing,  pain  alleviated,  misfortune  protected, 
war  made  less  horrible.  Are  not  these  desert 
reclamations  promising?  Are  they  not  heart- 
ening victories?  Is  not  a  second  Hague  con- 
ference a  crowning  achievement  ?  Why,  many 
there  are  of  our  most  conservative  statesmen, 
and  wisest  seers  and  sages  to-day,  who  believe 
that  the  days  of  war  are  numbered.    Think  of 


COMFORT  OF  FINAL  VICTORY  187 

that  gladdening  possibility.  There  are  symp- 
toms too  abroad  that  look  as  if  the  passing  of 
the  saloon  was  drawing  near.  Picture  for  a 
moment  that  splendid  achievement.  And  then 
withal  remember  that  for  scarce  two  thousand 
years  has  the  Christian  experiment  been  tried. 
Man,  the  scientists  are  telHng  us,  has  existed 
on  this  planet  for  at  least  one  hundred  thou- 
sand years,  and  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  gives  it  as  his 
guess  that  our  earth  will  be  habitable  for 
twenty  million  years.  If  we  have  any  grasp  of 
time,  geological  time,  astronomical  time,  bio- 
logical time,  we  see  what  a  mere  tick  in  the 
centuries  the  swing  of  recorded  history  is. 
We  are  only  in  our  infancy  as  a  race.  We  are 
only  commencing  our  racial  career.  Further- 
more, everything  great  as  already  hinted  calls 
for  continuance,  long  periods,  vast  reaches, 
cycles.  Cotton  will  grow  in  a  few  months, 
but  not  so  character.  The  house  takes  days, 
the  cathedral  centuries.  When  God  wants  a 
fungus  a  single  night  will  guarantee  the  same, 
but  when  He  would  have  a  giant  sequoia  He 
plants  the  seed  before  Hiram  cut  down  the 
cedars  in  Lebanon  for  King  Solomon.  Why, 
the  future  historian  will  marvel  not  so  much 
at  the  delay  as  at  the  despatch  of  the  moral 
victories  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

For  just  a  moment  glance,  please,  at  the  for- 


188         A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

eign  field.  The  first  missionaries  in  China, 
India,  and  Africa  died  almost  without  a  con- 
vert. James  Gilmour  laboured  in  Mongolia 
for  twenty-one  years  and  had  for  his  harvest 
just  one  doubtful  sheaf.  Mark  Mongolia  to- 
day. Henry  Martyn  toiled  to  little  purpose 
seemingly  among  the  Persians.  Keith  Fal- 
coner sowed  the  good  seed  on  stony  ground 
among  the  Arabs.  MacKenzie  was  the  first 
missionary  to  step  ashore  on  the  soil  of  Korea. 
He  broke  up  a  little  patch  of  ground  and  just 
lived  long  enough  to  scatter  a  handful  of 
grain.  Witness  Korea  to-day.  The  little 
leaven  bids  fair  to  soon  leaven  the  lump.  Ten 
years  ago  only  one  Presbyterian  Church  was 
found  in  Korea.  Now  there  are  over  three 
hundred,  and  all  but  two  are  self-supporting. 
One  hundred  years  ago  Robert  Morrison  went 
to  China,  the  first  Protestant  missionary.  He 
laboured  there  for  seven  and  twenty  years,  and 
when  he  passed  hence  in  1834,  he  could  count 
but  half  a  dozen  church  members  and  two 
books  published,  one  a  translation  of  the 
Bible  and  the  other  an  Anglo-Chinese  diction- 
ary. Glance  at  China  now.  There  are  one 
hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  church 
members,  there  are  three  thousand  mission- 
aries, and  there  are  ten  thousand  native  work- 
ers.   Indeed,  students  just  now  are  telling  us 


COMFORT  OF  FINAL  VICTORY  189 

that  China  has  made  more  progress  in  the  past 
five  years  than  in  the  previous  five  thousand. 
The  fact  of  the  matter  is  that  heathendom 
everywhere  is  disintegrating.  There  is  dis- 
turbance going  on.  The  leaven  is  creeping  and 
spreading  and  penetrating  till  soon  the  whole 
mass  will  feel  its  feverish  stir.  God  is  melt- 
ing the  frozen  rivers  of  the  world  by  raising 
the  general  temperature  from  local  centres. 

(3)  This  is  the  law  of  the  divine  fore- 
ordination.  How  objectionable  was  the  old 
extreme  way  of  stating  this  great  article  of  the 
Augustinian  theology!  The  Supralapsarian 
scheme  lacks  completeness  and  reach  of  vision. 
It  has  been  held  as  a  private  opinion  by  some 
eminent  theologians  but  it  is  not  taught  in  any 
confession.  It  is  not  a  part  of  our  West- 
minster statement.  Galvanism  is  the  great 
doctrine  of  the  divine  sovereignty,  but  Calvin 
himself  did  not  deny  validity  to  the  use  of 
human  means.  The  doctrine  of  Election  when 
properly  stated  is  no  hard,  dry,  wilted  doctrine. 
It  is  a  glorious  doctrine.  It  is  strong  and 
sound  and  rich  and  satisfying  and  comforting. 
It  is  one  of  the  choicest,  one  of  the  most  frag- 
rant flowers  in  the  garden  of  our  faith.  We 
are  beginning  to  learn  that  it  is  the  divine  law 
of  service  in  spiritual  things.  "  I  elected  you 
and  appointed  you  that  you  should  go  and  bear 


190         A  COMFORTABLE  FAITH 

fruit,  and  that  your  fruit  should  abide."  We 
are  saved  by  grace,  but  we  are  predestined  to 
lofty  and  unselfish  service,  this  service  being 
determined  by  the  outlay  with  which  He  equips 
us.  We  are  not  elected  exclusively  to  the  par- 
doning love  of  God ;  we  are  elected  to  convey 
that  love  to  others.  Election  is  not  exclusive; 
it  is  inclusive.  Were  the  Jews  of  old  elected? 
Surely !  Why  ?  To  preach  good  tidings  to  the 
Gentiles.  Was  theirs  the  adoption?  It  was. 
And  for  what  purpose?  Why,  to  bring  the 
whole  family  into  the  glorious  liberty.  Only 
by  isolation  could  the  tender  plant  be  nurtured 
into  sufficient  robustness  to  take  its  place 
among  the  old  firmly-rooted  idolatries  around, 
and  prove  itself  superior. 

Jesus  at  no  time  worked  for  a  large  follow- 
ing. Once  the  multitude  surrounded  Him,  but 
He  gave  voice  to  such  unwelcome  truths  that 
they  were  forthwith  scattered.  The  great 
work  of  His  life  was  in  training  twelve  unlet- 
tered men.  That  was  the  crowning  achieve- 
ment of  His  gracious  career.  His  was  a  leav- 
ening programme.  Like  the  old  prophets  he 
fell  back  at  last  upon  a  remnant.  He  turned  to 
the  people,  but  it  was  the  pick  of  the  people.  He 
appealed  to  the  world  through  a  sympathetic 
elect,  gathered,  sifted,  fit,  few.  He  works  thus- 
wise  still,  "  His  fan  is  ever  in  His  hand."    He 


COMFORT  OF  FINAL  VICTORY  191 

saves  all  men  to-morrow  by  some  men  to-day. 
His  evangel  is  for  the  prodigal,  but  His  call  is 
not  first  to  the  prodigal.  His  call  first  is  to  the 
holy  stock.  He  speaks  to  the  world,  but  He 
speaks  through  His  ecclesia.  As  Principal 
Forsythe  says,  "  The  elect  are  not  monopolists, 
but  first-fruits."  The  blessing  is  ultimately  for 
all.  For  mark  the  inspired  phrase,  "  Until  the 
whole  is  leavened.''  This  surely  is  inspiriting. 
It  is  reassuring.  There  is  to  be  no  defeat,  no 
failure.  The  whole  is  to  be  leavened.  So  let 
us  rejoice; 

"  For  nothing  walks  with  aimless  feet; 
And  not  one  life  shall  be  destroyed, 
Or  cast  as  rubbish  to  the  void, 
When  God  hath  made  the  pile  complete." 


THE   QUINN    &    BODEN    CO.    PRESS,    RAHWAY,    N.    J. 


PROBLEMS 


Beyond  the  Natural  Order  ^y^f^'^or  o/the 

^*  Chicago  Interior. 

Essays  on  Prayer,  the  Miracles  and  the  Incarnation. 
Net,  75c.  NOLAN  RICE  BEST 

Dr.  Alexander  Whyte  says:  "This  is  the  best  book  on 
prayer   and   miracle    I    have   ever    read." 

Principal  Marcus  Dods  says:  "Many  thanks  for  Best.  He 
IS  a  man  who  thinks  for  himself,  and  thinks  profoundly," 


The  Christian  Method  of  Ethics 

Net,  $1.25.  HENRY  W.  CLARK 

^:^v3'o*T^^.?^^°^??  '^'H^  PHILOSOPHY  OF  CHRISTIA-N 
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containing  original,  startling,  profound  yet  Intensely  practical 
ideas  about  the   Christian  life. 


My  Belief  :   Answers  to  Certain  Religious  Difficulties. 
Net,  $1.25  ROBERT  E.  HORTON 

Dr.  Horton  knows  that  the  real  difficulty  with  all  our 
religious  queries  lies  deeper  than  the  question.  He  is  not 
afraid  of  his  subject  and  shows  us  why  we  can  and  must 
believe. 

The  Law  of  Christian  Healing( 

Net,  7SC.  DAVID  BRUCE  FITZGERALD 

Written  with  that  definiteness  and  force  which  only 
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The  Bible  and  the  Problem  of  Poverty 

Net,  $1.00.  SAMUEL  M.  GODBEY 

A  studious,  well-written  book  by  the  editor  of  the  Nash- 
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questions  of  those  who  want  to  know  just  what  the  Bible  does 
teach    regarding   poverty. 

The  Starry  Universe  the  Christian's 
Future  Empire 

Net,  $1.50.  HORACE  C.  STANTON 

What  Scripture  reveals  about  the  transcendent  physical 
powers,  privileges,  and  possibilities  of  the  coming  life. 
Evidences  many,  varied  and  strong  that  we  are  to  explore 
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for  trouble  is  among  the  many  inspiring  deductions  from 
this  sublime  doctrine.  A  book  sane,  logical,  appealing 
to  both  intellect  and  heart. 


DEVOTIONAL 


A  Comfortable  Faith   "Heaven^  Harmonies.** 

Net,  $1.00.  MALCOLM  JAMBS  McLEOO 

Under  Dr.  McLeod's  gifted  hand  the  most  commonplace 
religious  truth  glitters  with  new  fire.  Few  men  have  equalled 
his  gift  of  expression  and  illustration.  He  argues  by  picture 
and  convinces  with  his  array  of  facts.  Tlie  central  theme 
of  this  volume  is  the  Christian's  assurance  of  heart  in  the 
midst  of  life  and  why  he  has  it  and  the  kind  of  Christian  a 
man  ought  to  be  with  this  gospel  to  believe  in. 

The  Full  Blessing  of  Pentecost— The  One 
Thing  Needful 

Net,  75c.  ANDREW  MURRAY 

^  Dr.  Murray's  most  recent  meditations  urge  nothing  that 
is  impossible  of  attainment,  but  simply  that  the  follower  of 
Christ  shall  yield  himself,  his  entire  being  to  the  power  of 
the  Divine  Spirit.  A  helpful  inspiring  and  heart-searching 
book. 

Day  Unto  Day      a  Brief  Prayer  for  Every  Day. 
Net,  soc.  GEORGB  MATHESON 

With  his  vivid  imagination  and  spiritual  vision  George 
Matheson  has  held  the  foremost  rank  among  writers  of  de- 
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Christian  world  for  the  stimulus,  inspiration,  and  wide  spir- 
itual outlook  which  have  made  the  memory  of  their  author 
a  cherished   possession. 

Our  Silent  Partner 

A  Devotional  Study  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
Net,   75c.  PROF.  ALVAH  S.  HOBART 

"It  is  a  delight  to  pick  up  a  religious  book  and  discover 
that  the  writer  knows  that  words  have  a  meaning.  We 
heartily  commend   this   little   book." — Baptist   Commonwealth. 

Abba  Father  :   a  Month  of  insight  and  Uplift. 

Net,  soc.  WILLIAM  DeWITT  HYDE 

)  Meditations  and  prayers  by  the  President  of  Bowdoin 
College.  A  book  of  rare  devotional  value,  arranged  for  the 
days    of   the   month. 

Supremacy  of  the  Heart  Life  ^%lil%il\t%e 

Net,  $i.2S.  WILLIAM  T.  MOORE 

Dr.  Moore  is  a  man  of  wide  experience  and  broad  sym- 
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the  problem  of  evil  and  Christ's  solution  of  it  by  the  power 
of  love.  It  establishes  our  faitk.  by  its  conviction  of  the 
"supremacy  of  tjie  heart"  and  the  certainty  of  ultimate  victory 
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LECTURES,  SERMONS.  ADDRESSES 

The  Gift  of  Influence 

Addresses  to  American  University  Students. 
Net.  $1.25.  HUGH  BLACK.  M.A. 

Ite  contact  between  Dr.  Black's  Scotch  training  and  the 
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*.*  Also  by  Dr.  Black, — "Chrisfs  Service  of  Love."    $z.2S  net. 

The  Fact  of  Conversion    Cale  Lectures  for  1908. 
Net,  $1.25.  GEORGE  JACKSON,  B.A. 

A  book  of  fact  and  an  interpretation,  being  lectures  deliv- 
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The  Reality  of  Conversion  as  a  Fact  of  Consciousness. 
The  Reality  of  Conversion  as  a  Fact  of  Life. 
Varieties  of  Conversion. 
The  Rationale  of  Conversion. 
The  Psychology  of  Conversion. 
Present  Day  Preaching  and  Conversion. 

Old  Events  and  Modern  Meanings 

Net,  $1.25.  ChARLES  F.  AKED 

ITie  first  volume  of  Dr.  Aked's  American  Addresses. 
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*,•  Also  by  Dr.\Aked,—"The  Courage  of  the  Coward"    $1.23  net. 

A  Little  Lower  than  the  Angels 

Net,  $1.25.  CHARLES  H.  PARKHURST 

To  describe  the  qualities  of  Dr.  Parkhurst's  thinking  and 
writing  is  superfluous.  This  latest  volume  comprises  seven- 
teen sermons,  of  which  the  dominant  aim  is  to  exhibit  man 
as  God  means  him  to  be.  They  arise  from  the  conviction  that 
the  inherent  dignity  and  destined  glory  of  humanity  is  the 
revelator  of  sin  and  the  most  powerful  incentive  to  a  worthy 
life. 


The  Master  of  the  Heart 

Net,  $1.00.  ROBERT  E.  SPEER 

"The  chapters  of  this  little  book  are  not  essays,  but 
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tical. They  were  spoken  in  the  first  place  to  the  young  men 
and  women  at  Northfield  and  present  simply  and  earnestly 
some  personal  aspects  of  Christian  truth." — From  the  Preface. 


LECTURES,  SERMONS.  ADDRESSES 

Christian  Principles 

Net,  soc.  G.  CAMPBELL  MORGAN 

"It  is  certainly  a  great  privilege  to  have  in  book  form 
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valuable." — Institute  Tie. 

The  New  Thin^fs  of  God  Manhauan  pSpit 

Net,  $1.25.  HENRY  A.  STIMSON 

Here  is  an  interesting  book  of  sermons.  Sermons  built 
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The  Price  of  Power 

Net,  50c.  J.  STUART  HOLDEN,  M.A. 

"Admirable  for  its  clearness  and  evangelical  warmth." — 
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very  root  of  the  matter." — Herald   and  Presbyter. 


Supposition  and  Certainty 

Net,  7sc.  J.  STUART  HOLDEN,  M.A. 

A  series  of  especially  illuminating  addresses  delivered  at 
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nal appeal   is  retained   by  a  coloquial  form  of  address. 


First  Principles  of  Christian  Citizenship 

With  Introduction  by  G.  Campbell  Morgan. 
Net,   75c.  ALBERT  W.  SWIFT 

Mr.  Swift  has  been  for  several  years  co-pastor  of  West- 
minster Chapel,  London,  with  Dr.  Morgan.  It  is  at  the 
urgent  solicitation  of  the  latter  that  these  lectures  find  their 
way  into  print.  They  are  clear,  sane  and  hopeful  of  the 
results  to  be  gained  by  Christian  citizens. 


Electricity  and  Its  Similitudes 

Net,  $1.00.    New  Edition.  C.  H.  TYNDALL,  Ph.D. 

Since  the  appearance  of  the  first  edition  of  this  book, 
which,  by  the  way,  is  not  at  ail  technical  although  authori- 
tative to  the  slightest  detail,  there  have  been  great  strides  in 
the  electrical  science.  Numerous  and  radical  changes  have 
been  necessary  in  revising  the  work. 


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